Disability and Inequality in Canada

Overview

• Chapter focuses on disability and inequality in Canada
• Discusses changing perceptions of disability
• Gives a detailed depiction of the prevalence of disability in Canada

Introduction

• Inequalities experienced by people with disabilities have become major issues
• Individuals with disabilities have struggled to live full lives due to stigma, discrimination, and social barriers
• Social institutions and cultural beliefs affect the lives of people with disabilities, impacting relationships, education, employment, and economic security
• Academic research and advocacy highlight the need for greater inclusion
• Challenges include the long-standing labeling of people with disabilities as sick or functionally limited
• Negative attitudes perpetuate stereotypes, raising barriers to employment and education
• Canadians with disabilities are more likely to face unemployment, involuntarily work part-time, and earn lower wages
• The degree of inequality can exacerbate through intersectionality with other sources of disadvantage like social class and race/ethnicity

Defining and Theorizing Disability

• Disability studies has emerged as an academic discipline
• Distinction between individual/medical model and social models of disability
• Individual/medical approaches focus on individual functional limitations and psychological consequences
• Result is responsibility and accountability being placed on the individual
• Social models address historical oppression and segregation of disabled individuals
• Social model distinguishes impairment (medically classifiable condition) from disability (social disadvantages experienced)
• Disability refers to factors creating restrictive circumstances, existing through transactions between individuals and environments
• Can originate through social construction/devaluation of human differences, structural causes (capitalism)
• Social models underscore how society creates and perpetuates oppression
• Social inequality for people with disabilities is a collective experience of discrimination/injustice, leading to activism and political action

Prevalence of Disability in Canada

• The 2012 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) provides the most recent profile
• Disability is defined using the World Health Organization's (WHO) conceptualization
• Disability as an umbrella term subsuming impairments, daily activities, social participation, and limitations to personal activities
• An estimated 3.8 million Canadians (14% of those aged 15+) have an impairment limiting daily activities
• Varies by age and gender, from 4% of women ages 15-24 to 45% of women ages 75+
• The average age of onset of main impairment was 43
• 13% reported a disability that existed at birth
• Most adult Canadians with disabilities reported more than one type
• Over half have mild or moderate disability, 23% severe, and 26% very severe

Disability Across the Life Course

• Numerous disciplines study social aspects of disability
• The life course perspective provides guiding principles emphasizing the intersection of individual lives with social structures/change
• The timing/duration of disability experiences has consequences on life chances
• The accumulation of risks/opportunities over time
• The fact the life course is shaped by policies and institutions unique to a particular time/place
• Age of onset of disability and time living with it are crucial considerations
• Distinguishes between aging with disability and aging into disability
• Life course of those who acquire impairments at birth/early in life is different from those who acquire impairments in middle age/later
• Cumulative dis/advantage explains the unfolding of inequality across the life course
• Disability policies are part of broader welfare state regimes
• Regimes differ across countries/time periods
• Can be affected by economic crises/conservative governments

Policy Context, Policy Change

• The social model considers ways society acts as a disabling force and a source of oppression
• Capitalist system has contributed to the oppression/disabling of disabled individuals
• Social model implications include a need for change in political, social, and physical environments
• This helps provide people with disabilities the opportunity to participate fully in society
• Government policy should promote barrier removal, adaptation of environments
• A human rights model targets systemic factors preventing equal participation
• Before the 1980s, policies reflected a medical model
• The shift to a social model appeared with the 1982 UN establishment of international policy guidelines
• In 1993, The UN adopted the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities
• In 2006, efforts culminated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Inequality in Education

• The education system illustrates the inequality
• History of education for persons with impairments is a story of devaluation and segregation
• During the last half of the twentieth century, children with disabilities were socialized to have low expectations
• Disability activists have challenged the segregated special education system
• Arguments for the current system include potential for specialized teacher training
• Integrated schooling versus separate schooling is a continued debate