Living with a learning disability does not mean that a person will not achieve success. Most people with a learning disability are treated as 'different'.

They do not have the same control over their own lives as the rest of our society and face challenges and prejudice every day. But many people have overcome these challenges and prejudices and achieved successes in their lives.

Medically, people may be classified as having a mild, moderate, severe or profound learning disability as described in Table 1. The highest prevalence of a learning disability is mild and there is a much smaller number of people with a severe or a profound learning disability.

While it is important to see people as more than a label or a diagnosis, this classification system allows us to describe and make sense of a broad range of implications experienced by the population of people with a learning disability. You should be aware that this is not clear cut; there may be overlaps between the categories in this classification system.