by Gail Fawcett

This article is adapted from a paper called Untapped Potential: Disability Process and Environmental Barriers, that was presented by the author at the National Workplace Equity Symposium for Persons with Disabilities in January 1998.

The approximately 1.2 million working-age people with disabilities in Canada who are without paid employment represent a tremendous source of untapped workplace potential. An analysis of data collected in 1986 and 1991 by Statistics Canada and from focus groups conducted by CCSD in recent months indicates that many people with disabilities want to be employed, but they have given up after prolonged failure at finding a job.

In 1991, there were 2.3 million persons of working age (between 15 and 64 years) with disabilities in Canada. Just under half of these people were in the labour force in 1986 – a proportion that rose to 56 per cent over the next five years. During the same period, approximately 80 per cent of working-age persons without disabilities participated in the labour force.

Although persons with disabilities of all severity levels joined the labour force in increasing numbers in the late 1980s, their success in actually finding and keeping jobs was mixed. People with mild disabilities had the most success in finding employment. But most people with severe disabilities who tried to enter the labour force simply moved from the ranks of the hidden unemployed to the officially unemployed. The unemployment rate among this group grew from 22 to 28 per cent between 1986 and 1991.

People with disabilities feel that their opportunities for employment have shrunk since the beginning of the 1990s. "We were the flavour of the month in the 1980s, but attitudes have changed," said one person with disabilities in the CCSD focus group.

Although many people with disabilities are discouraged by the negative attitudes of some employers, there are strong indications that they want to work for pay. For example, one in five people with disabilities who were not in the labour force in 1991, worked as volunteers – an indication that they want to hold a job and are capable of doing so.

People with disabilities say they work as volunteers to gain skills, training, and exposure to potential employers. "Volunteer work is the only way I can show an employer what I am capable of doing," said one focus group participant.

And nearly one-fifth of persons with disabilities who were not in the labour force in 1991 said that they intended to look for work again within the next six months. They undoubtedly hoped that something would change in the near future, such as their condition, their access to assistive devices, or the labour market itself. Other people indicated that they would like to work, but they had been turned down so many times that they had given up hope.

Environment is the biggest barrier

One of the factors most relevant to the success of people with disabilities in finding work is whether or not they need special accommodation while on the job or in getting to the job. People with disabilities who needed workplace accommodation, like wheelchair access or special computer equipment, were twice as likely to be unemployed in the late 1980s as those who did not require such accommodations.

Almost half of the persons with disabilities who were not in the labour force in 1991 cited at least one environmental barrier as the reason that they weren't looking for work. Among the barriers they listed were the following:

• They feared losing their income support if they found a job but could not keep it.

• They feared losing the disability-related supports and services they received through social assistance programs – supports they would not be entitled to as employed persons. In many cases, these supports and services (such as assistive devices or medications) would still be needed in order to be able to work, but the individuals didn't believe they could get a job that would pay enough for them to bear these extra costs.

• They didn't have access to transportation that would enable them to seek or keep a job.

• They didn't have adequate training for the jobs that were available.

These findings suggest that many unemployed people with disabilities are not "unemployable." If circumstances in their environment changed – such as their access to transportation or training – their ability to seek and keep a job would also improve.

Environments can change

If employers and governments made a greater commitment to help people with disabilities to join the labour force, far more people would have the opportunity to find a paying job. Sometimes even simple accommodations can make a huge difference. For example, in one CCSD focus group, a young woman in a wheelchair recounted her experience applying for a job in a retail store. She was certain that if the cash register were moved to an existing lower counter, she would be able to do the job. But the employer told her, "That simply couldn't be done," so she didn't get the job. A change in attitude on the part of this employer and a willingness to try something different would have allowed the woman to participate in the labour force.

Lone parents with disabilities have described the problems they face using public transportation, including rules that forbid stops at more than one destination en route or the transport of more than one child per adult. For these parents, dropping off a child at a care-provider's means being loaded onto and off one bus, then waiting for a second bus to take them to work. They are exhausted before they even begin their job. Changes in the rules governing the use of public transportation services could make it much easier for people with disabilities to get to work.

In some cases, we need to change the way that support services are delivered so that people with disabilities can participate in the workforce. For example, one woman in a CCSD focus group talked about her frustrations in getting assistance with personal hygiene. She lived alone and needed help getting into and out of her bathtub/shower. She was anxious to find a job and get off social assistance. After a long wait, she became eligible for government-funded home care which provided an assistant to help her bathe twice a week. How many of us would want to go to a job interview three or four days after our last bath or shower?

Research and personal anecdotes clearly show that there is great untapped potential among persons with disabilities and that they have a tremendous desire to work and to contribute to society. For employers, governments, unions, managers, and co-workers, our challenge today is to ensure that appropriate accommodations are made for people with disabilities – on the job, getting to the job, and at home in preparation for the job.

 

Gail Fawcett is a senior researcher at the CCSD and author of Living with Disability in Canada: An Economic Portrait, published by the CCSD for the Office for Disability Issues, Human Resources Development Canada, 1997. She recently conducted focus groups as part of a CCSD research project funded by the Trillium Foundation to better understand the barriers that prevent women with disabilities from participating in the labour force.

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