Accessibility barriers related to employment among persons with disabilities or long-term conditions, 2024 - Video transcript
The Accessible Canada Act supports the development of a barrier-free Canada across seven different priority areas, including employment. Persons with disabilities may experience barriers to accessibility when looking for a job, carrying out their work activities or in their career development. The Survey Series on Accessibility – Experiences with Accessibility and Employment (SSA-EAE), provides a snapshot of the experiences of persons with disabilities or long-term conditions while navigating accessibility barriers to employment. Today, Statistics Canada is releasing an infographic, “Employed persons with disabilities or long-term conditions,” which highlights key findings related to accessibility barriers among employed persons with disabilities or long-term conditions aged 15 to 64 years.
Nearly three in five persons with disabilities or long-term conditions experience a labour market-related barrier
The SSA-EAE found that nearly three in five (59%) persons with disabilities or long-term conditions experienced a labour market-related barrier to accessibility. Types of barriers include those experienced at work or during a hiring process, or those that discouraged or prevented one from working due to their conditions.
Employed persons with more severe disabilities or long-term conditions are more likely to experience a work-related barrier
Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) employed persons with disabilities or long-term conditions experienced at least one barrier to accessibility while at work. Research has shown a lower employment rate among persons with more severe disabilities, as compared to those with milder disabilities. Those with more severe disabilities or long-term conditions were more likely to experience work-related barriers (81%) than those with less severe disabilities or long-term conditions (66%).
The most common type of work-related barrier to accessibility is related to the physical environment
The SSA-EAE collected information on the types of barriers persons with disabilities or long-term condition experienced at work. The most common, reported by almost half (49%) of employed persons with disabilities and long-term conditions, were barriers related to the physical environment, followed by barriers related to communication (41%), transportation (35%) and technology (35%). Among the different types of barriers in the physical environment at the workplace, lighting or sounds levels (31%) and sidewalks or pedestrian paths (11%) were the most frequently cited physical environment barrier types.
Barriers may also occur during the hiring process or can discourage or prevent people from working or looking for work. Nearly 7 in 10 (68%) persons with disabilities or long-term conditions experienced a barrier to accessibility during a hiring process or one that discouraged or prevented them from working or seeking employment. The most common types of barriers experienced were difficulties disclosing their disability to their potential employers (54%), difficulties related to accommodations such as unmet accommodation requests, unable to request accommodations or unaware accommodations were available (32%) and lack of support or respect from hiring staff or past colleagues or manager (31%).
Note to Readers
Participants in the Survey Series on Accessibility – Experiences with Accessibility and Employment (SSA-EAE) were identified as having a disability through their participation in the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) and some SSA-EAE participants continue to be considered to have had a disability in a similar manner as they did in 2022. For the SSA-EAE, respondents were asked about any long-term health conditions or difficulties they had with seeing, hearing, walking, using stairs, using their hands or fingers, or doing other physical activities, learning, remembering or concentrating, any emotional psychological or mental health condition, or any other health problem or long-term condition. Only conditions that have lasted or are expected to last six months or more were included. The SSA is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.
SSA is based on a probability panel consisting of individuals who agreed to participate in further studies when they responded to the 2022 CSD. As a result of this methodology, it has a low cumulative response rate which increases the risk of bias. All estimates in this article should therefore be used with caution. For methodological details see Survey and statistical programs – Survey Series on Accessibility.
A global severity score was developed for the CSD, which was calculated for each person using the number of disability types that a person has, the level of difficulty experienced in performing certain tasks, and the frequency of activity limitations. To simplify the concept of severity, four severity classes were established: mild, moderate, severe, and very severe. 'Mild' and 'moderate' classes were collapsed into 'milder' while 'severe' and 'very severe' classes were collapsed into 'more severe'. It is important to understand, however, that the name assigned to each class is simply intended to facilitate use of the severity score and is not a label or judgment concerning the person's level of disability.
All differences mentioned in this article are statistically significant (p < 0.05).
Products
The infographic "Employed persons with disabilities or long-term conditions" is now available in the series Statistics Canada – Infographics (11-627-M).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).