Disability Categories and Characteristics

I recently tool some different lists of disability categories and tried to combine them into a simplified list with a minimal number of categories. Categories can be an effective way to group together certain characteristics that may (or may not) be useful in understanding more about a person who fits into that category.

Since that attempt to categorize disability, I've thought about a more effective way to provide useful information that may pertain to a characteristic of a disability without unnecessarily stereotyping a person who has a specific disability with all of the other characteristics that different persons with that same disability may have. Perhaps a listing of characteristics to a disability category, multiple categories as well as persons without disabilities. For example, the characteristic 'difficulty understanding abstract concepts' is present across multiple disability categories and as well as persons without disabilities. If this characteristic were listed in a training manual it could then be accompanied by helpful information to provide support for a person with that characteristic.

I'm not of the feeling that categories should be done away with, but am intrigued by the idea that there may be an alternative better suited for some training or informational purposes. Thoughts?