1998 National Organization on Disability
Louis Harris & Associates
July 23, 1999
Executive Summary
The 1998 N.O.D./Harris 1998 Survey of Americans with Disabilities, a nationwide survey of 1,000 Americans with disabilities aged 16 and older, was conducted in April and May of 1998. This survey has found that Americans with disabilities continue to lag well behind other Americans in many of the most basic aspects of life, as previous Harris studies found in 1994 and 1986. Large gaps still exist between adults with disabilities and other adults with regard to employment, education, income, frequency of socializing and other basic measures of ten major "indicator" areas of life.1 Furthermore, most of these gaps show little evidence of narrowing. In some cases, the gaps have even widened.
Employment continues to be the area with the widest gulf between those who are disabled and those who are not. Only three in ten working-age adults with disabilities are employed full or part-time, compared to eight in ten non-disabled adults. Working age adults with disabilities are no more likely to be employed today than they were a decade ago, even though almost three out of four who are not working say that they would prefer to be working. This low rate of employment has, in turn, led to an income gap that has not narrowed at all since 1986, with one in three disabled adults, compared to just one in eight non-disabled Americans, living in very low income households with less than $15,000 in annual income. And, while adults with disabilities continue to make progress in higher education - they are now just as likely to have completed at least some college as other adults - they continue to lag behind in getting a basic education, with one in five failing to complete high school, compared to only one in ten non-disabled adults.
These gaps in employment, income, and education, along with gaps in frequency of socializing, entertainment, and access to transportation and health care can arguably be linked to the gap that exists in life satisfaction. Only about one in three Americans with disabilities say that they are very satisfied with life in general, compared to fully six out of ten non-disabled Americans. And while the proportion of the disabled who are very satisfied has not declined in the past four years, the proportion who feel that their disability has prevented them from reaching their full abilities as a person has increased considerably during this same time period.
To determine what gaps exist and to note changes over time, specific quantifiable measurements or "indicators" have been developed for key life activities. A "gap" is defined as the number of percentage points by which Americans with disabilities lag behind other Americans on a given indicator.
There is some evidence that over the past decade that these gaps have persisted, adults with disabilities have, as a group, become even more disabled, possibly explaining the obstinacy of some of the gaps. Adults with disabilities are more likely today than in the past to say that their disability is very or somewhat severe, that they are unable to work because of their disability, that their disability prevents them from "getting around", and that they need help from another person in work, school or housework. Although adults with disabilities are, on average, more than a decade older than other adults, there is no evidence to indicate that the apparent increase in severity has been caused by an increase in the average age of the disabled population since 1986. Regardless of the cause, if the disabled population has become more severely disabled and the trend continues, there is a real danger that the gaps will not only persist, but further widen in coming years unless more aggressive measures are taken to address them.
Although the gaps in income, access, participation, and satisfaction between those with and those without disabilities are wide - and in some cases widening - a clear majority of Americans with disabilities believe that life has improved for disabled people over the past decade. Two out of three feel that things have gotten much better or somewhat better over the past ten years, and a majority feel that access to public facilities, quality of life, public attitudes toward people with disabilities, how the media portray people with disabilities, and access to public transportation have gotten better over the past four years. Perhaps encouraged through their growing awareness of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and belief that laws have been passed in recent years to provide protection to people with disabilities, those with disabilities, on the whole, continue to be optimistic in their outlook
Among adults with disabilities of working age (18 to 64)2, three out of ten (29%) work full or part-time, compared to eight out of ten (79%) of those without disabilities, a gap of fifty percentage points.
The proportion of working-age adults with disabilities who are employed has actually declined since 1986, when one in three (34%) were working. However, since 1986, the percentage of working age adults with disabilities who describe themselves as completely unable to work because of their disability or health problem has risen steadily, from three out of ten (30%) in 1986 to over four out of ten (44%) today. Among those with disabilities who are not working, but do not describe themselves as completely unable to work, the proportion who are employed has not declined since 1986.
Among those with disabilities age 16-64 who are not employed, seven out of ten (72%) say that they would prefer to be working.
Two out of three adults with disabilities say that their disability has prevented (41%) or made it more difficult for them (26%) to get the kind of job they would like to have.
Among adults with disabilities who work full-time, fewer than half (46%) say that their work requires them to use their full talents or abilities, compared to two out of three (66%) in 1994.
Adults with disabilities who are working full-time are more likely today than in 1994 to say that one of the barriers they have faced in trying to find a job is that "the jobs I could get don't pay enough" (47% vs. 31%).
Since data for people without disabilities was available only for adults age 18 and older, data for people with disabilities has been restricted to this same age group when comparisons are made.
One out of five (20%) adults with disabilities aged 18 and over has not graduated from high school, compared to only one out of ten (9%) adults with no disabilities. The percentage of adults with disabilities without a high school education continues to exceed the rest of the population by eleven percentage points, similar to the gap in 1994 (24% vs. 12%).
Adults who describe themselves as severely disabled are even more likely not to have completed high school (22%, vs. 14% of those who describe their disability as slight or moderate). Frequency of Socializing
Only seven out of ten (69%) adults with disabilities socialize with close friends, relatives, or neighbors at least once a week, compared to more than eight out of ten (84%) of the non-disabled population. Although this gap of fifteen percentage points is marginally smaller than in 1994 (when it was eighteen percentage points), it is still greater than the ten percentage point gap existing in 1986. Furthermore, this gap has gotten wider since 1986 due to a decline in frequency of socializing among the disabled population rather than an increase among the non-disabled, with the frequency of socializing among the non-disabled remaining relatively constant over the past twelve years (85%, 86%, 84% in 1986, 1994, and 1998, respectively).
Just over half (54%) of adults with disabilities go to church, synagogue, or another place of worship at least once a month, compared to almost six out of ten (57%) of those without disabilities. This gap has decreased since 1986 when it was eleven percentage points (55% among persons with disabilities, 66% among the non-disabled) to three percentage points today. However, this gap has narrowed because of a decline in participation among the non-disabled, rather than an increase in participation among the disabled population.
About a third (33%) of adults with disabilities go to a restaurant at least once a week, compared to six out of ten (60%) of those without disabilities. This gap of twenty-seven percentage points has widened since 1994 when it was twenty-one percentage points (34% among persons with disabilities, and 55% among the non-disabled), and is now just as large as it was in 1986 (34% and 58%, respectively), with no apparent increase in the frequency of restaurant-going among the disabled in more than a decade.
Only six out of ten (62%) adults with disabilities was registered to vote in the 1996 Presidential election, compared to almost eight out of ten (78%) among the non-disabled population, according to the Current Population Survey4, representing a gap of sixteen percentage points. One in four (25%) adults with disabilities has been offered voter registration services from a government or community agency in the last five years.
Fully a third (34%) of adults with disabilities lived in a household with an annual income of less than $15,000 in 1997, compared to only about one in eight (12%) of those without disabilities. This twenty-two percentage point gap between the percentage of disabled and non-disabled persons living in very low income households has remained virtually constant since 1986 (40% of persons with disabilities vs. 18% of the non-disabled in 1994; 51% and 29%, respectively in 1986)
Inadequate transportation is considered a problem by three out of ten (30%) adults with disabilities (17% "major problem, 13% "minor problem"), but by only one out of six (17%) adults without disabilities (7% "major problem, 10% "minor problem"), a gap of thirteen percentage points.
One out of five (21%) adults with a disability did not get medical care that they needed on at least one occasion during the past year, compared to one in ten (11%) adults without a disability, a gap of ten percentage points.
One in four (28%) adults with disabilities postponed getting health care they thought they needed in the past year because they couldn't afford it.
Although nine out ten (90%) adults with disabilities are covered by health insurance, (a marginal increase over 1994, when 86% were covered), adults with disabilities are more likely than other adults (23% vs. 13%) to say that they are dissatisfied with the health care services they and their family have used in the last few years. Among those with disabilities who are insured, one in three (32%) say they have special needs because of their disability (such as particular therapies, equipment, or medicine) that are not covered by their health insurance.
Among adults with disabilities who are not covered by health insurance, one in five (18%) were not able to get insurance because of a disability or preexisting health condition.
Only about one in three (33%) adults with disabilities is very satisfied with life in general, compared to fully six out of ten (61%) non-disabled adults. This gap, currently twenty-eight percentage points, has widened over the past four years (35% of those with disabilities were very satisfied in 1994, compared to 55% of the non-disabled population, for a gap of twenty percentage points) with the non-disabled population becoming considerably more optimistic, but those with disabilities showing no increase in optimism. Moreover, this gap is much wider than in 1986, when it was only eleven percentage points (39% very satisfied among the disabled, 50% very satisfied among the non-disabled). Although much of the widening of the gap is due to this increased optimism among the non-disabled, the proportion of adults with disabilities who are very satisfied with life has significantly declined since 1986 (33% today, down from 39%).
People with disabilities describe themselves as more severely disabled, more in need of assistance from another person, and less able to work because of their disability or health problem today compared to 1994 and 19867.
Almost two out of three adults with disabilities describe their disability as very (26%) or somewhat (37%) severe, compared to only six out of ten in 1994 (24% very, 35% somewhat) and just over half in 1986 (24% very, 28% somewhat).
More than four out of ten (43%) adults with disabilities who are of working age describe themselves as completely unable to work because of their disability or health problem. This proportion has increased steadily for more than a decade, with three in ten (30%) of those with disabilities describing themselves this way in 1986, and about a third (35%) describing themselves this way in 1994.
Seven out of ten (69%) adults with disabilities say that their disability prevents them in some way from getting around, attending cultural or sports events, or socializing with friends outside their home as much as they'd like to, compared to only 64% in 1994, and 56% in 1986.
Almost two out of three (66%) adults with disabilities say that they need help from another person in work, school, housework, or other activities, compared to fewer than six out of ten (58%) in 1994. Although the vast majority (84%) get the help they need, one in six (16%) does not.
Many people with disabilities continue to feel that the rest of the population treats them as if they are different, and to have a strong sense of common identity with other people with disabilities.
Fewer than half (45%) of adults with disabilities say that people generally treat them as an equal after they learn they have a disability, virtually the same proportion as in 1994 (47%), and still considerably smaller than in 1986 (56%).
A slim majority (52%) adults with disabilities continue to have a strong sense of common identity with other people with a disability, as they did in 1994 (54%). The proportion who feel this way is still considerably higher than in 1986 (40%).
Two out of three (67%) adults with disabilities feel that their disability has prevented them from reaching their full abilities as a person, a considerably larger proportion than in 1986 (57%). Adults with disabilities consider the same things to be problems today that they considered problems in 1994, with lack of money still considered the biggest problem by far that they face among a list of several potential problems.
Remarkably similar figures in 1994 and 1998 reveal that the problems faced by adults with disabilities are little different today than they were four years ago. "Not having enough money" is considered to be at least a minor problem by two out of three (68%) adults with disabilities, and a major problem by four out of ten (39%).
Inadequate health insurance (23% major problem), inadequate work opportunities (21% major problem), and not having a full social life (21% major problem) are considered major problems by at least one in five adults with disabilities.
Inadequate transportation (17%), negatives attitudes toward one's disability (10%), and poor access to public facilities (10%) are less likely to be considered major problems.
Despite persistent gaps in key aspects of life, most adults with disabilities continue to feel, as they did in 1994, that progress has been made in a number of areas for people with disabilities in recent years.
Two out of three adults with disabilities (66%) feel that "things…in general" for Americans with disabilities have gotten better in the past ten years, a marginally larger proportion than in 1994 (62%), although still fewer than in 1986 (72%).
A majority of adults with disabilities feel that access to public facilities (75%), the quality of life for people with disabilities (66%), public attitudes toward people with disabilities (63%), how the media portray people with disabilities (62%), access to public transportation (60%), and including people with a disability in advertising (57%) have all gotten better for people with disabilities over the past four years. The proportion who think that each of these has gotten better has remained remarkably constant since 1994.
On the other hand, those with disabilities are less optimistic about their own quality of life in the near future, with fewer than half (46%, marginally down from the 48% in 1994) believing that their quality of life will improve over the next four years. Adults with disabilities are more likely to say that they have heard of the ADA than in 1994, but a substantial minority are still not aware of it. Among those aware of the ADA, most think that it has not had a significant impact on their life.
A larger proportion of respondents than in 1994 (54% vs. 42%) think that laws have been passed in the last ten years to give more protection to people with disabilities.
Just over half (54%) of adults with disabilities have heard of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a significant increase since 1994 (40%).
One in three (35%) respondents thinks that the ADA has made his or her life better, as opposed to worse (1%) or no different (58%). In 1994, one in three (35%) thought that the ADA would make his or her life better.