{"id":61466,"date":"2025-05-05T09:22:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T13:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/?post_type=publications-page&#038;p=61466"},"modified":"2025-05-05T09:22:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T13:22:55","slug":"proving-you-have-a-disability","status":"publish","type":"publications-page","link":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability","title":{"rendered":"Proving you have a disability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In most cases, you must prove that you have a disability to get ODSP. The ODSP calls this &#8220;qualifying as a person with a disability&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The Disability Adjudication Unit (DAU) is the office that decides if you can get ODSP as a person with a disability.<\/p>\n<p>The DAU also decides if and when you need to prove your disability again to keep getting ODSP. This is called a medical review. Usually, these reviews happen every 2 to 5 years.<\/p>\n<p>To prove your disability, a health professional must confirm that you have a &#8220;substantial&#8221; physical or mental health problem.\u00a0\u00a0And that problem:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>is likely going to last a year or more, and<\/li>\n<li>limits in a substantial way how much you can work, look after yourself, or do daily chores at home or in the community.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"left-line\">The ODSP has a list of health professionals that can confirm that you have a substantial health problem.<\/div>\n<h2>What &#8220;substantial&#8221; means<\/h2>\n<p>Substantial usually means that something has a big or important affect on your life. But the law does not say exactly what a &#8220;substantial&#8221; disability is or how it has to limit you for you to get ODSP.<\/p>\n<p>The DAU looks at your individual situation. And based on that, it decides if your disability and how it affects you is substantial.<\/p>\n<h2>Not having to prove your disability<\/h2>\n<p>Some people can get ODSP without having to prove they have a disability. This might apply to you if you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>get disability benefits from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP-D) or the Qu\u00e9bec Pension Plan<\/li>\n<li>are over 65 but not able to get Old Age Security<\/li>\n<li>get services or support because you have a developmental disability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-61466","publications-page","type-publications-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Proving you have a disability - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Proving you have a disability - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In most cases, you must prove that you have a disability to get ODSP. The ODSP calls this &#8220;qualifying as a person with a disability&#8221;. The Disability Adjudication Unit (DAU) is the office that decides if you can get ODSP as a person with a disability. The DAU also decides if and when you need to prove your disability again to keep getting ODSP.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-05T13:22:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability\",\"name\":\"Proving you have a disability - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-05T13:22:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-05T13:22:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Publication pages\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Proving you have a disability\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/\",\"name\":\"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Proving you have a disability - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/proving-you-have-a-disability","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Proving you have a disability - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","og_description":"In most cases, you must prove that you have a disability to get ODSP. 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