25 plain-English guides on blue book listings, written from public Social Security Administration sources: SSA.gov, the Listing of Impairments, POMS and 20 CFR. Every figure carries the year it applies to, because these rules change and an undated number is worse than no number. Start anywhere in the list below, or use the navigation above to move to a different stage of the process.
- Chronic Migraines and Disability: No Listing Needed
Chronic migraines have no Blue Book listing. See how headache diagnosis records, attack frequency logs, treatment history, and function build an SSDI claim.
- Multiple Conditions: How SSA Combines Impairments
Learn how the SSA evaluates multiple medical conditions together under 20 CFR 404.1523, even when each single diagnosis seems mild or moderate on its own.
- Combining Multiple Non-Severe Impairments
Discover how SSA combines multiple non-severe impairments under 20 CFR 404.1523 and assesses their cumulative vocational impact on your SSDI claim.
- COPD Spirometry FEV1 Criteria: Listing 3.02
Listing 3.02A sets COPD FEV1 cutoffs by age, sex, and height without shoes. See the SSA table plus the post-bronchodilator and medical stability test rules.
- Diabetic Retinopathy: Blue Book Vision Limits
Learn how diabetic retinopathy meets SSA Blue Book visual criteria under Listings 2.02 and 2.03, including visual acuity and visual field loss limits.
- Early-Onset Alzheimer's and Listing 12.02
Learn how early-onset Alzheimer's disease qualifies for SSDI under Listing 12.02, including CDR scores, neuropsychological testing, and fast-track CAL rules.
- Impairment-Related Work Expenses and SGA
How impairment-related work expenses lower countable earnings under the monthly SGA limit for SSDI, which costs SSA allows, and how to document them.
- Impairment-Related Work Expenses and Your SGA Count
Discover how impairment-related work expenses reduce your countable earnings below the 2026 SGA limit to protect your Social Security disability claim.
- Impairment-Related Work Expenses in the SGA Test
Impairment-related work expenses reduce gross earnings before SSA applies the monthly SGA test. Learn qualifying deductions and rules under 20 CFR 404.1576.
- Joint Replacement Complications: Listing 1.17
Failed hip or knee replacements under Listing 1.17: documented surgery, 12 months of limitation, and a medical need for a walker or bilateral support devices.
- Listing 1.16: Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Disability Criteria
How SSA evaluates lumbar spinal stenosis disability under Listing 1.16: cauda equina compromise on imaging, exam findings, and the mobility rules.
- Listing 12.05: Intellectual Disorder Criteria
Understand SSDI Listing 12.05 criteria for intellectual disorders. Learn about IQ testing rules, proving onset before age 22, and adaptive functioning.
- Listing 14.02: How Lupus Meets the Blue Book
Discover how systemic lupus erythematosus qualifies for SSDI under Blue Book Listing 14.02, covering multi-organ involvement, flares, and RFC options.
- Listing 14.09: Inflammatory Arthritis Criteria
Explore SSDI Listing 14.09 for inflammatory arthritis. Learn criteria for joint deformity, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic flares, and physical RFC rules.
- What Marked and Extreme Mean in Mental Listings
Learn what marked and extreme limitations mean under SSA mental health listings, how paragraph B criteria work, and how adjudicators rate disability claims.
- Meeting vs Equaling an SSA Blue Book Listing
Meeting a listing means satisfying all of its criteria. Equaling one means proving medically comparable severity and duration. See how SSA evaluates both.
- Mental RFC: The Four Areas SSA Rates
SSA rates mental RFC in four areas from Blue Book 12.00: understanding and memory, concentration and pace, social interaction, and adapting to change.
- Mental RFC: Simple Routine Tasks Explained
A mental RFC limited to simple, routine, repetitive tasks matches unskilled work demands exactly, cutting out skilled jobs while leaving unskilled ones.
- Parkinson's Disease Criteria Under Listing 11.06
SSA decides Parkinson's claims under Listing 11.06: rigidity, bradykinesia, and gait loss must cause extreme or marked limits despite 3 months of treatment.
- Rheumatoid Arthritis Criteria: Listing 14.09
Listing 14.09 covers rheumatoid arthritis SSDI: joint deformity with mobility devices, spine ankylosis in degrees, organ involvement, and flare criteria.
- Sleep Apnea and SSDI: Listing 3.10 Explained
Explore how sleep apnea qualifies for SSDI under Listing 3.10 through pulmonary hypertension, chronic respiratory failure, and neurocognitive decline.
- How to Read the SSA Blue Book of Impairments
The SSA Blue Book lists 14 adult body systems and the exact severity criteria SSA uses to decide disability. Learn how to read every listing.
- Can You Get SSDI for Severe Osteoarthritis?
How SSA evaluates osteoarthritis under Listing 1.18, including joint abnormality evidence, assistive device rules, and the residual functional capacity path.
- Step 2 of Disability: What Makes an Impairment Severe
Learn what makes an impairment severe at Step 2 of the SSDI evaluation, how the de minimis standard works, and why SSA denies non-severe claims.
- Traumatic Brain Injury Criteria: Listing 11.18
SSA Listing 11.18 sets the SSDI test for traumatic brain injury: extreme motor loss in two extremities, or marked physical and mental limits over 3 months.