Blue Book (Listing of Impairments Manual)

The Blue Book is the common name for the SSA publication Disability Evaluation Under Social Security, which contains the Listing of Impairments. It organizes qualifying medical conditions into body systems, such as musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, and mental disorders, and spells out the specific clinical findings needed to meet each listing.

If your medical evidence satisfies every requirement of a listing, or is judged medically equal to one, SSA can approve your claim at step three of the sequential evaluation without considering your age, education, or work history. Most claimants do not meet a listing exactly, and those claims are then decided based on residual functional capacity and vocational factors instead.