London Handicap Scale (LHS)

The London Handicap Scale asks about disadvantage rather than impairment — not what a person's body cannot do, but what their condition has cost them in the world. That framing comes from the World Health Organization's original classification, where "handicap" meant exactly this.

Six dimensions are covered: mobility, physical independence, occupation, social integration, orientation, and economic self-sufficiency. Each offers six descriptions arranged from no disadvantage to most severe disadvantage, and the person picks the one that fits. Because it is written as a self-completion questionnaire and covers ground most rehabilitation measures leave out — work, money, social life — it captures effects that a function scale would miss entirely.

Licensing Notes: The scale is reproduced across clinical resources without a posted fee and with no explicit reproduction terms — confirm before republishing.

Learn More: Scoring uses equal weighting of items.For most clinical purposes, simple summation is defensible; if you're comparing against published research, check which method that study used.