 Assumptions about the adverse effect of disability on well-being pervade the measurement of “health-related quality of life” (HRQL). In particular, two features of many standard approaches to measuring HRQL treat disability as inimical to well-being: 1) assuming that an individual’s adaptation to a disability is a source of distortion or a measurement artifact in assessing how well he or she is doing; 2) expanding the definition of health outcomes to include not only the physiological and sensory-motor effects of disease and injury, but their “sequelae”—their effect on daily living and social participation. The first feature ignores the extent to which adaptation involves changes that would count as improvements in well-being on most objective as well as subjective accounts (Menzel et al. 2002; Barnes 2009a). The second fails to distinguish the contribution of medical and social/environmental factors to the restriction or loss of objectively valuable activities (Wasserman, et al. 2005a). These features not only exaggerate the adverse impact of disabilities, but in some contexts, threaten adverse consequences for people with disabilities.