Disabled people are members of the local communities within which you do business.

Disability affects people's inclusion in the community in different ways. Community partnerships and projects should be inclusive and factor in their needs.

What issues affect disabled people in your local community?

Poverty and disadvantage disproportionately affect disabled people.

• In 2002 15% of disabled people of working age in the UK lived in low-income households – more than double the percentage of adults without disabilities.
• The risk of becoming disabled is higher for individuals:
  • with lower educational qualifications
  • who are not in employment
  • who are in low occupational groups
  • who live on a low household income [i]

• As many as 50% of disabilities are preventable and directly linked to poverty. For instance WHO estimates 1,5 million of visually impaired children in Africa and Asia have preventable conditions [ii]
• In the United States the risk of poverty continued to rise for those with disabilities while it fell for people without disabilities. By 2000, the relative risk of poverty of those with disabilities rose to an all time high of 4.13 times that of working age people without disabilities [iii]

Education is the top priority of 70% of businesses which are involved in supporting their local communities [iv]

• Almost one in five children — around 1.5 million — have some form of Special Educational Needs [v]
• 38% of young disabled people surveyed said that they had been bullied at secondary school [vi]

Inaccessible transport is one of the biggest barriers facing disabled people in everyday life.

• More than 40% of disabled people in England and Wales experience difficulty with travel [vii]
• 47% of the disabled people surveyed by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee say they would travel by public transport more if staff were better trained [viii]
• Wheelchair users are only two percent more likely to state that transport is a problem than people who have learning disabilities, or 3% than people who have a hearing impairment [ix]

Housing

• 1.5 million people need adapted housing – yet only a quarter of people have the premises they need; The UK is estimated to need more than 300,000 more accessible homes [x]

Crime

• Disabled people are more likely to be the victims of crime [xi]
• Almost a quarter (23%) of people with learning disabilities report having been physically assaulted. [xii]

Caring responsibilities have a large impact on disabled people's friends and families.

• 10% of individuals whose spouse becomes disabled, leave work to undertake caring responsibilities. 1 in 4 of these carers undertake 100 or more hours of care a week, ruling out paid employment [xiii]
• An estimated 2.8 million Canadians provide support to a family member or friend with a long-term health condition or disability [xiv]
• Over half of Canadian parents of children with disabilities report that their child's condition has affected the family's employment situation [xv]

Engaging with disabled members of the community

• Include disabled people and the issues they care about in community partnerships and projects
• Make sure projects are designed to promote access and inclusion: Undertake a 'disability audit' to ensure that all community projects will meet the needs of local disabled people
• Don't limit your community involvement to charitable giving – look for projects which will benefit both disabled people and the business
• Consider working with local disabled people's groups to audit both your business and community activities to ensure that they are inclusive of everyone

Useful links

Scope's Time to Get Equal Campaign

Business in the Community Community Affairs channel

Sources

1. [i] Tanya Burchardt, 'Social exclusion and the onset of disability, Joseph Rowntree, November 2003.
2. [ii] Disability, poverty and development, Department for International Development, February 2000
3. [iii] 'Rising poverty in the midst of plenty' Burkhauser, Houtenville, Rovba, Cornell, April 2005
4. [iv] Business in the Community members
5. [v] Department for Education and Skills statistics 2002 and 2003
6. [vi] Disability Rights Commission 2002
7. [vii] 'Disablist Britain', DEMOS, 2006
8. [viii] Mencap Information Service ‘Living in Fear ’ , 04/2000.
9. [ix] CfIT 2001
10. [x] Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, 2002
11. [xi] John Grooms research quoted in 'Disablist Britain', DEMOS, 2006
12. [xii] 'Disablist Britain', DEMOS, 2006
13. [xiii] Tanya Burchardt, 'Social exclusion and the onset of disability, Joseph Rowntree, November 2003.
14. [xiv] An Overview of Disability in Canada
15. [xv] An Overview of Disability in Canada