Participation restrictions imposed on members of the family due to disability among one of them has neither been studied nor addressed sufficiently to promote health of the stake holders. ‘Third-party disability’ is defined as the disability and functioning of family members due to the health condition of their significant others and was identified as a direction for future development by the WHO (2001). The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is the WHO’s frame work for measuring health, functioning & disability at both individual & population levels.

For successful rehabilitation, it is essential for the professional to determine the support, motivation, attitude and functioning of significant others, as they are an important team member in the rehabilitation process of individuals with health related conditions including communication disorders. Sufficient data is not available on third party disability imposed on significant others for families of persons with speech & language disorders. Hence the study has been undertaken in order to delineate the third party disability in ICF framework of family members with persons having aphasia.

Problem areas faced by the receptive and expressive aphasics as reflected in ICF domains and core-sets were identified. The effect of these problem areas on the aphasic’s family members (third party disability) in terms of activity limitations and participation restrictions (AL/PR) were then assessed through a questionnaire developed based on the ICF framework. Non-parametric (NPar) and group statistical tests were administered for data analysis & reliability check.

A total of 5 domains related to activity & participation and 1 domain under environmental factors have been found appropriate to assess the profile of aphasics. Through this study, activities limitation and more so participation restrictions in ICF could be linked to domains viz. domestic life, self-care, interpersonal interactions & relationship, social & community life, and communication whereas considering component of environmental factors includes attitude & emotions of the family members with persons having aphasia. All the problems faced by the family members of aphasics could be quantified easily through the ICF based scoring system which yielded maximum falling in severe & complete problem group

The study shows the existence of ‘third party disability’ in family members of individuals with aphasia. This is seen as, severely affecting the participation restrictions and activity limitations of family members of persons with aphasia.