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

by Gail Fawcett

     

Appendix A

For women with disabilities, barriers to employment can take on unique characteristics as they interact with daily life. Among these are factors such as their greater tendency to live alone or as a lone parent; their surprisingly high degree of financial responsibility; their more limited opportunities for stable and high-paying jobs; much more limited opportunities for assistance with household tasks; and prevailing social attitudes toward disability and women.

From the material contained in this report, it is possible to recommend a number of broad strategies that should be kept in mind as programs and policies are being remodeled in light of In Unison. While these strategies address some of the barriers that are critical for women with disabilities, they represent a positive approach for men as well. They include:

Delinking income programs from disability-related supports and services:

Disability-related supports and services must be delinked from income support/replacement programs in order to make the supports required by persons with disabilities available to those who could not afford to enter the paid labour market otherwise. This is also specifically proposed by In Unison. The importance of this strategy, however, cannot be stressed enough. As long as women with disabilities are required to pay for their own supports when they leave the relative safety of an income program, the reality of their lives will create a huge barrier to labour force participation. Because of their greater likelihood of living alone or as a lone parent with almost total financial responsibility for themselves and their children, as well as their much lower likelihood of earning a high wage if they were to find a job, women with disabilities are often those most adversely affected by the present system of linked disability-related supports and income programs.

In addition, supports must be adequate to meet the real life needs of women and men with disabilities. Many of the focus group participants noted that even for those on some type of income support program, supports are not adequately provided.

"I couldn’t actually sit in the chair for any length of time without a special type of seat which cost $2,000. Welfare wouldn’t pay for it, so I had to raise it myself by organizing a garage sale and asking people for donations."

Creating a stable environment in which persons can move between paid employment and income support programs with ease:

Policies and programs in the area of income support/replacement must create a "safe" environment for persons with disabilities in order to allow them to move easily from income programs into the labour market and back again without any disruption in cash flow. When they are the sole income provider so much of the time, women with disabilities need to know that their families will not go hungry should they lose their job and need to re-apply for benefits.

It is important as well not to limit trial periods in the labour market to relatively short periods of time. Changes in the state of cyclical and degenerative disabilities do not always occur within a short period of time.³⁵ As well, labour market instability for persons with disabilities might be tied to more global economic factors that bring about change only very slowly. The labour market instability experienced by persons with disabilities – particularly women – coupled with the cyclical nature of some disabilities must be recognized and provided for by income programs in order to reduce the risk involved in leaving the "stable poverty" of an income program. Given the level of fear expressed in all the focus groups conducted for this project, it may be very difficult to instill a sense of trust in persons with disabilities in this regard.

"With the changes in Ontario, no one wants to risk going back to the workforce. Some might like a contract job or part-time job so they can work according to their health, but the government and private insurance companies encourage their beneficiaries not to try to find work."

Improving opportunities for better-paying jobs:<

There is a need for policies and programs that help women with disabilities compete more successfully for the kinds of jobs that could provide the relative stability and income level required to survive with a disability in the paid labour market. Previous research has shown that increasing the education level of women with disabilities can greatly improve their labour market position.³⁶ It is encouraging that levels of educational attainment among young women with disabilities are improving. Table 14 shows that 16 per cent of women with disabilities aged 25 to 34 are university graduates, compared to 10 per cent of those aged 55 to 64. Equally encouraging is that more young women aged 15 to 24 with disabilities are continuing their education. Almost two-thirds of women with and without disabilities in this age group are students.

Table 14: Percentage of women and men with and without disabilities who are university graduates, by age group, Canada, 1996
	Women		Men
Age group	With disabilities	Without disabilities	With disabilities	Without disabilities
Aged 25 to 34	15.7%	22.2%	11.8%	20.0%
Aged 35 to 44	14.4%	17.3%	15.9%	22.8%
Aged 45 to 54	13.4%	18.8%	13.1%	22.7%
Aged 55 to 64	9.8%	14.4%	6.9%	20.6%
Note: Individuals aged 15 to 24 are not included since many are still pursuing their education.
Source: Prepared by the Canadian Council on Social Development using data from Statistics Canada's National Population Health Survey, 1996/97.

While there have been many advances in making the educational system more accessible to students with disabilities, there is still need for improvement.³⁷

As well, we need to know more about which training programs are effective for persons with disabilities and which are not. Our focus group participants had a wide variety of experiences with training programs and quite a range of successes and failures. Detailed survey data on training for persons with disabilities has been lacking. We need to know answers to the following questions: What type of training is most effective? What duration of training is most effective? Who is best to deliver the training and where? What problems are encountered? What positive aspects are experienced? And, what supports at the training stage can make a difference? Our focus group research certainly indicated that the provision of disability-related supports (in particular, specialized equipment) at the training stage can have a very positive impact on future job prospects. As well, a positive attitude toward persons with disabilities on the part of the people involved in the education and training system is of paramount importance in the success of education and training programs.

"Vocational rehab helped me with equipment when I went back to college and then university. When I tell my rehab worker that I’m working now, she’ll celebrate with me."

Women with disabilities need access to good jobs. This means breaking down some of the stereotypes about the abilities of persons with disabilities and the proper role for women. It also means improving accessibility on the job and to and from the job. A number of women commented on the importance of being able to obtain government assistance for a prospective employer who is willing to offer jobs to persons with disabilities but cannot afford some of the equipment or assistive devices that would be required.

"I need somebody to help me on and off with my coat and pack up stuff to take my work home, and my employer bought a special desk and voice input for my computer. But sometimes you don’t get the job because you cost too much money."

Extending the definition of employment supports and accommodations to the domestic sphere:

While there is an obvious need for supports and accommodations for persons with disabilities at the job site (i.e., accessible entrance and washroom, accessible workstation and equipment, etc.), what happens at home is just as important. For many persons with disabilities, household tasks often require more time and effort – leaving less time and energy for work, sleep and health care. In an effort to perform all these necessary functions and still find time to work, many persons with disabilities rob themselves of sleep and health care, which often results in a worsening health condition and more severe disability. While this affects both women and men with disabilities, men seem to have more options available to secure assistance with these tasks. Women with disabilities spend more time on domestic tasks and have higher levels of stress than any other group.

Most employment-related policies and programs, however, are predicated on the assumption that if an individual is fit for the workplace, she should be capable of performing these household tasks without help. However, supports at home are just as necessary as supports on the job for ensuring that persons with disabilities have the time and energy to work. Programs and policies must extend the definition of employment supports to include the domestic sphere.

Closely related to domestic tasks is the issue of child care options. Women with disabilities who have young children often face unique barriers in obtaining child care. While improved child care options would increase the employability of any woman in our society, it would have an even more profound affect on the employability of women with disabilities. For women with disabilities, child care options are often more limited by the lack of accessible child care sites, and inadequate transportation between home, child care sites and work. This is further complicated by the much lower levels of earnings obtained by working women with disabilities. Child care options such as having a caregiver come to the home to care for children can avoid much of the accessibility and transportation barriers for mothers with disabilities; however, these options are often much more costly. Given the relatively low earnings potential that women with disabilities face in the labour market, these more costly child care options are often beyond their financial reach.

Forums for information exchange and support groups provide a valuable resource for women with disabilities trying to enter the labour market:

Our focus group participants often note the difficulty they encountered in finding information about opportunities for training, the availability of various employment-related programs, and job opportunities. Having a forum for discussion of these opportunities and the exchange of information was considered to be a valuable resource. As well, it was clear that getting together with other women with disabilities could provide valuable human support. All the focus group participants noted that human support was an important element in helping to build their self-esteem, and that self-esteem was important in obtaining and keeping a job. Some credited their families and friends with providing this support. Others, however, did not have this support at home; for many of these individuals, support groups and forums for information exchange with other women with disabilities could provide a valuable service aimed at gaining and keeping employment.

Social attitudes:

The overwhelming message within each of our focus groups was that women with disabilities desperately want to work for pay to improve both their economic welfare and their self-esteem. They also strongly expressed their desire to contribute to society by holding a job. Yet they also expressed the view that negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities severely limited their opportunities. These negative attitudes, coupled with gender bias (and racial bias for ethno-racial women with disabilities), present a powerful negative influence on the employment opportunities for women with disabilities.

Worsening economic situations seem to increase negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities. Both women and men with disabilities cited this as one of the most powerful barriers to employment. Many believe that if attitudes would change, many of the other barriers would appear to be more evident and efforts would be made to eliminate them. Strategies that seek to better inform the public about disability (and more precisely, about the abilities of persons with disabilities) and that attempt to improve attitudes toward persons with disabilities might also have a positive impact on the employability of persons with disabilities.

The women and men in our focus groups expressed a strong desire to contribute to society through paid work. For those who had been unable to obtain paid employment, volunteer work was commonly regarded as one way in which they could make a contribution, and these unpaid workers displayed remarkable skills and determination. It is clear that all of our workplaces in the paid economy would benefit greatly by the addition of this richness of skills, determination, and a diversity of ideas.

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