ADA week question: Does this disability survey result reflect your reality?

 

The headline of this article caught my attention: "Twenty years of the ADA and discrimination still a major problem."

Curious, I took a look at the article, and disagreed with much of it. Then, even more curious about the source of the information, I read the actual survey from which the article was derived. While I always find social surveys interesting in the same way that I may find the blurb on the back of a book jacket interesting, like the book jacket, these surveys seldom tell the whole story.

 

My main complaint about this sort of information dissemination is that one can manipulate numbers to look like just about anything. I once saw a t-shirt that read: "Only lawyers and painters can change black to white." Well, it seems to me that special interest groups and statisticians can do the same.

 

I do not disagree with the premise upon which the article or the survey finding is based, namely, after twenty years; we’ve still got a long way to go before we catch up to our non-disabled counterparts. No argument there. A few of the findings, though, made me wonder if the results reflected my own reality, or that of my readers.

 

One generalization with which I took particular umbrage was the notion that a significant percentage of people with disabilities do not participate in family or social activities. The survey states that this "once again suggests there are significant barriers to access to leisure activities." Really? That seemed odd to me. Would that lack of involvement really be due to a disability? Lack of access to movie theaters or restaurants? Or, could it have something more to do with a person’s own sense of self-esteem, lack of open communication or social isolating due to depression, grief or feelings of unworthiness? If that is the case, is it fair to say, "I don’t participate in family activities because I’m disabled"? Or, "I’m not very social because of my disability and the lack of access to restaurants"? It seems to me that this would be related to one’s level of optimism, attitude or outlook on life, and I know plenty of people who are not disabled who are socially inept or who have a nonexistent family life.

 

There were other factors which were used to measure quality of life and overall satisfaction, such as poverty, education, access to technology and employment. A cross section of individuals was surveyed, numbering approximately one thousand respondents with disabilities, and a similar number who were non-disabled. Where it was not possible to survey a person with a disability directly, an appropriate proxy was surveyed.

 

Employment still seems to be the weakest area of progress. The survey revealed that only 21 percent of people of working age who are disabled are employed. In fact, that number seems to have slipped a tad, although I wonder if it might have a little something to do with the fact that our economy is languishing like a trout on a boat deck right now. Might that number be just a little misleading? Could the number also be lower because more people with disabilities actually may have started their own businesses? I’m just asking here.  None of my friends or  acquaintances who are disabled are unemployed. At least, none who want to work.

 

As for technology, the survey suggested that 85 percent of non-disabled persons accessed the Internet, while only 54 percent of those with disabilities do. One might conclude that this is due to lack of access, increased poverty, or lack of education. I don’t buy it. I just don’t. First of all, poverty should have nothing to do with Internet access, you can connect for free at any library. Lack of education should have little to do with it, there are about 300 million Twitter users alone who can tell you everything you need to know. I didn’t go to school to learn how to use the computer. Most of my contemporaries didn’t, either. There was no computer education when I was in school, because there was no Internet, and not many desktops, either. At least, not one in every home in the 1980’s, when I was in school.

 

Surveys like this do absolutely nothing to further the interests of the disability community, in my opinion. They draw a very dark picture of life, implying that things are so much more terrible for us because we are disabled. This dim view can only add to the groundless paranoia, irrational fears, superstitions and negative stereotypes held by the non-disabled. Considering that ten percent of the survey respondents were either unwilling or unable to participate in the survey, and that a "qualified, appropriate family member living in the household" took the survey on their behalf, how can even the hope of accuracy be more than a distant dream? Ten percent is well within the margin of error on most polls, and when an individual is being surveyed about such subjective issues as quality of life, isn’t that a question only one person can really answer? How is someone who is not me supposed to judge the quality of my life?

 

What do you think? Does this survey finding reflect your own reality? Please comment and share your thoughts.

 

Here is the link to the article: dada.org

   

Here is the link to the survey: 2010 Disability Gap Survey

 

Maybe I’ll have to ponder this some more…as soon as I get back from lunch with my girlfriends and post this to my blog and then charge up my laptop so I can tweet about it while I’m working.

LL