Job rate for people with disabilities improves but still more work to do

Published on July 24, 2008 by Donna Seale

Statistics Canada released its Participation and Activity Limitation Survey of 2006: Labour Force Experiences of People with Disabilities In Canada today which details growth in the employment rate of persons with “activity limitations” (disabilities) for the period of 2001 to 2006. The survey defines a person with an activity limitation as a someone ”whose everyday activities are limited because of a health-related condition or problem.” The survey examined 10 different types of activity limitations: hearing, seeing, communication, mobility, agility, pain, learning, memory, developmental and psychological.

While the survey showed the labour force participation rate for persons with disabilities rose from 49.3% to 53.5% between 2001 and 2006, that was still significantly lower than the participation rate of persons without disabilities, which stood at 75.1% in 2006. Moreover, the survey details that barriers still exist in the workforce which prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in it (or, in some cases, from participating at all).

While recognition certainly must be given to employers out there who are making strides to create working environments that are inclusive of people with disabilities, there’s still more work to do in order to increase their rate of employment. I think education is key because it addresses that whole ‘fear of the unknown’ that many employers experience when they even think about employing someone with a disability. Workplaces that take active steps to educate themselves on disability and accommodation are the ones most open to making change. In most cases, the workplace accommodation a person with a disability needs is minimal (I’d note here that the survey points out that the accommodation most required by survey participants was a modification to work hours or days). Nowadays, there are numerous resources that exist to help employers in this area. If you access the home page of my blog you’ll note on the right hand side bar that I list some of the internet-based resources (hopefully this blog falls into that category too (!)). Perhaps by the time the next survey of this kind is done we’ll see even greater improvement.

You can view a summary of the survey here. Also of interest is this Canadian Press news release and this article from the Vancouver Sun.

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