One in four Americans live with a disability that interferes with activities of daily living

According to a national survey conducted in September 2010, 27% of American adults live with a disability that interferes with activities of daily living, including:

• 15% of American adults who say they have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
• 11% of American adults who say that, because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, they have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.
• 9% of American adults who say they have serious difficulty hearing.
• 8% of American adults who say that, because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, they have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping.
• 7% of American adults who say they are blind or have serious difficulty seeing, even when wearing glasses.
• 3% of American adults who say they have trouble dressing or bathing.

Americans living with disability are more likely than other adults to live in lower-income households: 46% of adults with a disability live in households with $30,000 or less in annual income, compared with 26% of adults who report no disabilities and live in households with that level of income.

They are also likely to have low levels of education:  61% of Americans living with a disability have a high school education or less, compared with 40% of adults who report no disabilities and have that level of educational attainment.

Americans living with a disability are also likely to be older:  58% are age 50 or older, compared with 36% of adults who report no disabilities who are that age.

These patterns are in line with the findings of the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the U.S. Census.¹

Using the internet can be a challenge for people living with disabilities

Two percent of American adults say they have a disability or illness that makes it harder or impossible for them to use the internet.

The Pew Internet Project provides the following data as context for the continuing conversation about who does – and does not – use the internet in the U.S., including a proposal to extend the enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act to include websites operated by certain entities.¹ A call for comments on the proposed change was announced by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department on July 26, 2010. The public comment period will close on January 24, 2011.

Americans living with a disability are less likely than other adults to use the internet

Fifty-four percent of adults living with a disability use the internet, compared with 81% of adults who report none of the disabilities listed in the survey.

Statistically speaking, disability is associated with being older, less educated, and living in a lower-income household. By contrast, internet use is statistically associated with being younger, college-educated, and living in a higher-income household. Thus, it is not surprising that people living with disability report lower rates of internet access than other adults.  However, when all of these demographic factors are controlled, living with a disability in and of itself is negatively correlated with someone’s likelihood to have internet access.

People living with disability, once they are online, are also less likely than other internet users to have high-speed access or wireless access.   For example, 41% of adults living with a disability have broadband at home, compared with 69% of those without a disability. This finding is in line with a much larger 2009 federal survey which looked at the data another way:  39% of American adults who do not have broadband internet access are living with a disability.²

Pew Internet’s research has consistently shown that broadband access and mobile access deepen an internet user’s relationship with the online world:

• 43% of Americans say that people who do not have broadband at home are at a major disadvantage when it comes to finding out about job opportunities or learning career skills.
• 34% of Americans see a lack of broadband access as a major disadvantage to getting health information.³
• People with wireless internet access are more likely than other internet users to post their own health experiences online or to access the health information created by other people in online forums and discussion groups.⁴

This report is based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between August 9 and September 13, 2010, among a sample of 3,001 adults, age 18 and older.  Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.  For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.  For results based on internet users (n=2,065), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.  In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

A combination of landline and cellular random digit dial (RDD) samples was used to represent all adults in the continental United States who have access to either a landline or cellular telephone. Both samples were provided by Survey Sampling International, LLC (SSI) according to PSRAI specifications.  The landline sample for this survey was designed to generalize to the U.S. adult population and to oversample African Americans and Hispanics. To achieve these objectives in a cost effective manner, the design uses standard list-assisted random digit dialing (RDD) methodology, but telephone numbers are drawn disproportionately from telephone exchanges with higher than average density of African-American and/or Hispanic households. The cellular sample was not list-assisted, but was drawn through a systematic sampling from dedicated wireless 100-blocks and shared service 100-blocks with no directory-listed landline numbers.

New sample was released daily and was kept in the field for at least five days. The sample was released in replicates, which are representative subsamples of the larger population. This ensures that complete call procedures were followed for the entire sample.  At least 7 attempts were made to complete an interview at a sampled telephone number. The calls were staggered over times of day and days of the week to maximize the chances of making contact with a potential respondent. Each number received at least one daytime call in an attempt to find someone available. For the landline sample, half of the time interviewers first asked to speak with the youngest adult male currently at home. If no male was at home at the time of the call, interviewers asked to speak with the youngest adult female. For the other half of the contacts interviewers first asked to speak with the youngest adult female currently at home. If no female was available, interviewers asked to speak with the youngest adult male at home. For the cellular sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone. Interviewers verified that the person was an adult and in a safe place before administering the survey. Cellular sample respondents were offered a post-paid cash incentive for their participation. All interviews completed on any given day were considered to be the final sample for that day.

Disproportionate sampling and non-response in telephone interviews can produce biases in survey-derived estimates. The dataset was weighted in two stages.  The first stage of weighting corrected for the disproportionate landline sample design and also accounted for the overlapping landline and cellular sample frames as well as different probabilities of selection associated with the number of adults in the household. The second stage of weighting matched overall sample demographics to population parameters. The demographic weighting parameters are derived from a special analysis of the most recently available Census Bureau’s March 2009 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. This analysis produces population parameters for the demographic characteristics of adults age 18 or older. These parameters are then compared with the sample characteristics to construct sample weights. The weights are derived using an iterative technique that simultaneously balances the distribution of all weighting parameters.

The response rate for the landline sample was 13.6 percent. The response rate for the cellular sample was 17.0 percent.

Questions

DIS001  Thinking again about your own health… Do you have serious difficulty hearing?

            CURRENT            

%            9              Yes

            90           No

            *             Don’t know

            *             Refused

DIS002  Are you blind or do you have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?

            CURRENT            

%            7              Yes

            93           No

            *             Don’t know

            *             Refused

DIS003  Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?

            CURRENT            

%            11           Yes

            89           No

            *             Don’t know

            *             Refused

DIS004  Do you have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?

            CURRENT            

%            15           Yes

            84           No

            *             Don’t know

            *             Refused

DIS005  Do you have difficulty dressing or bathing?

            CURRENT            

%            3              Yes

            97           No

            *             Don’t know

            *             Refused

DIS006  Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, do you have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?

            CURRENT            

%            8              Yes

            92           No

            *             Don’t know

            *             Refused

DIS4       Do you have any disability or illness that makes it harder or impossible for you to use the Internet, or not?

            CURRENT            

%            2              Yes

            97           No

            1              Don’t know

            *             Refused