Skip to main content
ARTICLE

There is Strength in Numbers (Disability Issues )

Christine Brown
Winter 2008

Tags

Though an ETFO member living with multiple sclerosis or depression may beg to differ, there are signs that as a society our collective awareness of disability issues has  risen. One reason is the simple fact that we have far better information today than we did a decade ago. In December, Statistics Canada began releasing data from its second  Participation  and  Activity  Limitation Survey (PALS). The survey  derives from a telephone poll conducted after the 2006 census; the respondents were chosen based on their answers to filter questions in the census itself.

Statistics Canada is among the most respected information-gathering bodies in the world. Still, all surveys have their  limitations, and this one is no different. For one thing, the information was self-reported, and disability is still a much stigmatized aspect of the human condition. In addition, the survey excluded persons living in institutions and on First Nations reserves.

Nevertheless, the data are illuminating. Since the first survey in 2001, the number of people reporting a disability has  risen by 21.2 percent. Canada’s population is aging, so some increase is understandable. But reworking the data to eliminate the impact of our collective aging accounts for only 40 percent of the increase.

Where does the other 60 percent come from? Statistics Canada analysts suggest that one factor may be that in today’s  social climate more individuals are comfortable reporting that they have a disability.

Disability issues 

Here is a sample of what the numbers say:*

  • For adults (15 and older), the disability rate increased from 14.6 percent to 16.5 percent. One dramatic change has been in the number of adults reporting a learning disability. Between 2001 and 2006, this figure rose by nearly 40 percent.
  • For working-age Canadians (age 15 to 64), the most common form of disability is pain, followed by limitations in mobility and agility.
  • The incidence of mobility-related disabilities was less than 2 percent among those age 15 to 24, rising to 44 percent among those 75 and older.
  • Among children (age 5 to 14), 3.2 percent reported a learning disability.
  • Around 5 percent of the adult population reported a hearing-related disability, 3.2 percent a vision-related disability, and 1.9 percent a speech-related disability.
  • Working-age women were more likely to report that they have a disability than were men.
  • Overall, the reported disability rate in Ontario is slightly higher than in Canada as a whole.

Choosing to  disclose a  disability is purely a personal decision. If  it is indeed the case that a  growing  number  of  people  are  comfortable reporting that they have a disability, what are the larger implications? Specifically, what  kinds  of leverage in the realm of political action and advocacy might this self-reporting help create? Good public  policy  making  often  begins  with  good information. Numbers are powerful things.

*  All data are taken from Statistics Canada, The Daily, December 3, 2007. Statistics Canada will be releasing further reports based on the PALS survey throughout the year. To learn more about PALS, go to: statcan.ca and search “Participation  and Activity Limitation Survey 2006.”