One in Seven Have Disability

One in seven Canadians has a disability severe enough to impair their daily living. The impairment can range from sometimes to often. Excluding Quebec which does not participate in Federal studies, there are 3.5 million Canadians with disabilities.

Look around you. If there are seven people in the area, one person likely has a disability. Or maybe not: they might not have been able to get to where you are at school, work, mall or other public place.

For the moderate to severely impaired, each day is a challenge of overcoming physical barriers, pain, and discouragement. The simple acts of getting up in the morning, bathroom duties, breakfast and getting off to work become for many Olympic hurdles.

Once the impairment reaches a certain stage, getting and remaining at work becomes impossible which is why people with disabilities have lower work-force participation than people without disabilities.

Disability in Canada since 2001 has been studied by a group called PALS, Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, funded by Human Resources Development Canada. Their last study which is rich with numbers and information can be found by clicking on the link.