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Bringing Down the Barriers:
The Labour Market and Women with Disabilities in Ontario

by Gail Fawcett

     

APPENDIX A: The dynamics of disability

According to evidence from the longitudinal Labour Market Activity Survey of 1989 and 1990, about 44 per cent of individuals who had a disability in 1989 did not have a disability the next year. In fact, evidence points to cyclical disabilities which contribute to this high turnover rate.

Similar turnover rates are found in the more recent longitudinal Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). Following individuals over a two-year period (1993 and 1994), roughly 70 per cent of both women and men of working age (69.8 per cent of men and 70.8 per cent of women) did not have a disability in either year. However, for the other 30 per cent, there was some experience with or uncertainty over disability during that two-year period.

An exiting from the state of disability was experienced by 2.3 per cent of the men and 3.2 per cent of the women between 1993 and 1994. Similarly, 2 per cent of the men and 2.4 per cent of the women entered a state of disability during that same period. A fairly large number of individuals were uncertain about whether their condition was considered a disability or not (20.2 per cent of the men and 18.2 per cent of the women), suggesting that disability does not always strike as a result of a single definite illness or event.

A stable core of 5.6 per cent of the men and 5.4 per cent of the women, however, remained in a state of disability for the two-year period.

Using the first two years of SLID data, disability status during this two-year period can be reclassified into three main categories: (1) those with a disability in both years (5.5 per cent of all working-age persons); (2) those with a confirmed disability in one year (either no disability or uncertain in the other year)(6.9 per cent of all working-age persons); and (3) those with no confirmed disability in either year (including also those with no disability in one year and uncertain status in the other)(87.6 per cent of the working-age population.

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