Canadian Council on Social Development 441 MacLaren Street 4th/e Floor/Étage Ottawa, ON K2P 2H3

Conseil canadien de développement social Tel: (613) 236-8977 Fax: (613) 236-2750 E-mail: council@ccsd.ca Internet: www.ccsd.ca

by Gail Fawcett

     

ENDNOTES

¹According to the 1996 Census, there were 588,700 adult women with disabilities in Ontario and 344,200 of them were of working-age (between 15 and 64). However, the disability screening question that is used on the Census is known to undercount the actual number of persons with disabilities when compared with the more precise screening questions contained in the Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS). The HALS screening questions inquire about limitations with respect to specific activities (such as seeing, hearing, speaking, mobility, agility, and non-physical). However, since HALS has not been repeated since 1991, the 1996 Census data represent one of the most recent large-scale databases available for researching persons with disabilities. The disability rates and numbers contained within this report, therefore, are likely to provide a very conservative estimate of the actual rates and numbers.

² Figures reported in the text have been rounded off.

³A Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is defined by Statistics Canada as an urban core of at least 100,000 people, together with surrounding urban and rural areas which have a high degree of social and economic integration with the urban core. There are 25 CMAs in Canada.

⁴The CCSD conducted five focus groups of women with disabilities from a variety of backgrounds. They were held in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Toronto, Ottawa, and Kingston. Another focus group of ethno-racial women with disabilities was conducted in Toronto, and a focus group of franco-Ontarian women with disabilities was conducted in Alfred, Ontario. Finally, a focus group of men with disabilities was conducted in Ottawa.

⁵While Quebec shares the concerns raised in In Unison, the government of Quebec did not participate in the development of the document because it wishes to assume control over programs for persons with disabilities for Quebec.

⁶In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues released by Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services, Human Resources Development Canada, 1998.

⁷The reference year for the 1996 Census is 1995. Poverty is measured using Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-offs (LICO), which are one of the most widely used and accepted measures of poverty in the area of social policy research. Persons with family incomes below the low income cut-offs are defined by Statistics Canada as living in "straitened circumstances" and in this report are defined as "poor." Although LICO is widely used as an indicator of poverty, it is not defined as such by Statistics Canada. The low income cut-offs are based on family income and are adjusted for the size of the family and the size of the community in which they live.

⁸NPHS, 1996/97

⁹NPHS, 1996/97

¹⁰Unlike the public-use tape of the NPHS which permits the identification of "lone parents" of all ages, SLID only permits the identification of persons "living in lone parent families with children under 25." This means that it is impossible to distinguish between an adult child under 25 living at home with a lone parent and a lone parent under 25. Therefore, when comparing lone parents with and without disabilities using SLID, it is necessary to limit the analysis to those 25 and older to ensure that adult children are not being included in the analysis. SLID data are used here, since the survey provides information on per cent of family income provided by an individual and NPHS does not.

¹¹Working-age women and men with disabilities find themselves as the only adult providing income to their household a surprisingly high proportion of the time. Whether they live in a household of one, as a lone parent, or with other adults, almost one in three persons with disabilities are responsible for 100 per cent of their household income. Less than one in five women and men without disabilities are in this situation (SLID 1994).

¹²The Report of the Mayor's Homelessness Action Task Force (January 1999) states: "There is broad agreement that about one-third of the homeless population suffers from mental illness, but the percentage varies considerably according to age and gender. An estimated 33 per cent of single men in hostels have mental illness and as many as 75 per cent of single women do. Homelessness is not a major cause of mental illness, but being homeless will likely increase the duration and seriousness of a mental illness." (page 114)

¹³Differences in the rate of part-time work were investigated here as well. For women without disabilities, the rate of part-time work is definitely higher among those who worked full-year without gaps at two or more jobs than among those who worked full-year at a single job (43.8 per cent compared to 25.4 per cent). However, among women with disabilities, holding multiple jobs without gaps is only marginally more likely to involve part-time work than having one job all year (38.0 per cent compared to 35.5 per cent). This suggests that differences in the rate of part-time work are not at the heart of these differences.

¹⁴See Appendix A for more details on the Turnover Phenomenon and cyclical disabilities.

¹⁵Doe, Tanis and Sally Kimpson. Enabling Income. Status of Women Canada. 1999.

¹⁶Following a group of individuals over two years (1993 & 1994), the SLID allows us to look at the dynamics of employment and disability over a two-year period. Just as in our focus groups, the majority of women with disabilities were officially out of the labour market. It should be noted that there are also a fair number of women and men who had a disability in only one of the two years examined. In fact, the proportion of persons reporting a disability in only one year is almost equal to the number reporting a disability in both years. This is due to the "turnover phenomenon" which is described in further detail in Appendix A. For ease of comparison, only those with a disability during both years and those with no disability in either year are examined here when looking at activities across a two-year period.

¹⁷It goes without saying that they also earn less than men without disabilities.

¹⁸If we look at all working-age persons who were employed at a paying job throughout 1993 and divide individuals into quintiles (five even groups based upon earnings), we find that those in the lowest quintile earned under $15,640 in 1993; those in the second lowest quintile earned between $15,640 and $25,031; those in the middle quintile earned between $25,032 and $34,475; those in the second highest quintile earned between $34,476 and $45,892; those in the highest quintile earned over $45,893 . These earnings categories then provide the basis for comparison for the four groups discussed here (based on disability and gender). The object of the comparison is to determine the degree to which each group reflects the overall earnings distribution. For example, is one group more likely to have earnings at the lowest or highest earnings level for the entire population? We can easily determine that women with disabilities are more likely than any other group to have earnings in the lowest category.

¹⁹HALS, 1991

²⁰Due to data restrictions, this comparison had to be limited to lone parents over the age of 25. On the public-use tape of SLID, it is impossible to distinguish lone parents under 25 from adult children under 25 living in a lone-parent household. By restricting the analysis to those over age 25, this problem is eliminated. As a basis for comparison, the Survey of Consumer Finance (which does not permit the identification of persons with disabilities) 1997 was used to generate similar information (major source of income) among lone-parent mothers aged 25 to 64. It was found that 59.6 per cent reported earnings as their major source while 32 per cent reported government transfers as their major source - this includes both women with and without disabilities.

²¹SLID, 1994

²²SLID 1993-1994

²³Para Transpo Survey Report by Disabled Persons Community Resources, Ottawa, 1998: page v This report appears in its entirety on DPCR website: www.ncf.carleton.ca/disability

²⁴See Para Transpo Survey Report by Disabled Persons Community Resources, Ottawa, 1998, for a discussion of some of these issues.

²⁵NPHS, 1996/97

²⁶The number of men in the sample who cited "family responsibilities" as their reason for not working was too low to produce a stable estimate.

²⁷This uses the adjusted specific chronic stress index from the 1994/95 NPHS as a measure of the overall everyday stress experienced.

²⁸HALS, 1991

²⁹These figures apply to a variety of other household tasks including shopping and housework.

³⁰Extended family situations in our focus groups were fairly common. In fact, 1996 Census data indicate that "40 per cent of three-generation households include someone with an activity limitation" (Under One Roof: Three Generations Living Together by Janet Che-Alford and Brian Hamm in Canadian Social Trends, Summer 1999, Statistics Canada: page 7).

³¹As noted by Sylvia Weiser-Picciano, Community Resource & Development Co-ordinator of Disabled Persons Community Resources in Ottawa, there is a lack of financial resources available to fund many of the organizations providing supports and services to persons with disabilities (many of them are non-profit organizations run by volunteers). As a result, many supports and services are only available in English.

³²"In many ethnic and visible minority groups, the needs of persons with disabilities may not be legitimized within their culture. This situation may be complicated by a range of factors relating to the family's refugee or immigrant status and past experiences (such as war or torture). The fear that exists in some communities regarding the threat of deportation or of losing one's status as a result of the Canadian Immigration Act Section 19(1) further complicates the identification of persons with disabilities. In some cultures, a person with a disability may be kept hidden with his/her identity concealed." in Bridge to Integration - A Model to Link Persons with Disabilities from Other Cultures with Existing Community Services by Disabled Persons Community Resources, Ottawa, 1995: 3.

³³Among those with severe disabilities, assistance with meal preparation was not as closely associated with labour force activity as it was for those with mild and moderate disabilities.

³⁴Including Us . . . Ethno Racial People with Disabilities speak out on issues of race and disability, Tasneem Chowdhury and Sricamalan Pathmanathan, The Ethno Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO), Toronto, 1996: page 39.

³⁵Only with longitudinal data from a survey like SLID can we really track the dynamics of disability and its impact on the lives of people over time. When the full six years of SLID data are released, we will be in a better position to understand more about cyclical disabilities.

³⁶Fawcett, 1996: 152-157

³⁷See Emer Killean and David Hubka, Working Towards a Coordinated National Approach to Services, Accommodations and Policies for Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities. National Educational Association of Disabled Students, 1999.

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