Canadian Survey on Disability Reports
The Dynamics of Disability: Progressive, Recurrent or Fluctuating Limitations
by
Stuart Morris,
Gail Fawcett,
Linden R. Timoney and
Jeffrey Hughes
Release date: December 3, 2019
Abstract
The conventional view of disability is that it is a persistent and unchanging limitation. However, many persons with disabilities may not follow this relatively stable pattern. Instead, they may experience periods of good health interrupted by periods of their limitations (on-again/off-again episodes) or their limitations may change over time (worsening, improving, or fluctuating). Such changing disabilities can be characterized as dynamic, as opposed to continuous disabilities, which tend to be more stable over time. Thus, the collective experiences of persons with disability dynamics may look different than those of persons with continuous disabilities. In this paper, four groups of persons with different disability dynamics (or lack of dynamics) are profiled based on data from the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability. Each group has their own unique demographic, employment, and workplace accommodation profile based on the length of time between periods of their limitations, as well as changes in their limitations over time. The main findings are:
- Of the 6.2 million persons with disabilities aged 15 years and over, 2.4 million (39%) experienced conventional continuous limitations whereas 3.8 million (61%) experienced some type of disability dynamic.
- Of the 3.8 million persons with disability dynamics, nearly 1.4 million (37%) experienced limitations that worsened over time (“progressive”); over 1.5 million (41%) sometimes had periods of a month or more without experiencing limitations (“recurrent”); and over 0.8 million (22%) had shorter periods in which they experienced fluctuations in limitations (“fluctuating”).
- Among those with disabilities, women were more likely than men to experience fluctuating limitations (16% vs 10%) whereas men were more likely than women to experience continuous limitations (43% vs 36%).
- Persons with progressive limitations had the greatest number of disability types, with an average of four. Persons with fluctuating or continuous limitations averaged about three types, and those with recurrent limitations averaged about two.
- The employment rate was highest for those with recurrent limitations (65%) and lowest for those with progressive limitations (40%). For those with fluctuating or continuous limitations, the employment rates were in the middle range at 53% and 59% respectively.
- Among employed men, those with recurrent limitations (93%) had the highest rate of full-time employment while those with progressive limitations had the lowest (78%). Among employed women, those with continuous limitations (79%) had the highest rate of full-time employment while those with progressive limitations (67%) had the lowest.
- Among non-employed persons, those with progressive limitations had a lower likelihood of work potential than those with either recurrent, fluctuating, or continuous limitations.
- At around half their respective populations, employed persons with progressive (56%) or fluctuating (49%) limitations were the most likely to require workplace accommodations. By comparison, less than a third (31%) of employed persons with recurrent or continuous limitations required workplace accommodations.
