Definition of Being Disabled.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

The term special educational needs has a legal definition.
Children with special educational needs (SEN) all have learning difficulties, or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age.

These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age.

The law says that children do not have learning difficulties just because their first language is not English. Of course, some of these children may have learning difficulties as well.