Stigma and discrimination persist even though 13% of the U.S. population lives with a disability. With 44 million Americans living with some kind of disability, understanding their needs is more important than ever.
To help Americans better understand accommodation needs in their communities, accessiBe used Census Bureau data to chart Oregon’s disability statistics. This state-level story is part of a broader national analysis. The share of a state’s population with a specific disability is measured among the total non-institutionalized civilian population using 2022 1-year American Community Survey estimates.
According to the World Health Organization, nearly everyone will eventually develop a disability if they live long enough. According to 2022 Census Bureau estimates, nearly a quarter of Americans ages 65 to 74 have a disability, compared to about 13% of people ages 35 to 64. Nearly half of people ages 75 and older have some kind of disability. As the U.S. population ages, accessibility will become increasingly important in U.S. infrastructure and culture.
“Accessibility” and “accommodations” are two terms often used to refer to efforts to remove barriers for people with disabilities. Accessibility refers to proactive measures taken to remove barriers when planning or designing an event, program, or structure. Accommodations are designed to retroactively correct barriers created by previously inaccessible designs.
Accessibility for people with disabilities has improved significantly since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. A 2023 Pew Research survey found that nearly three in four workers who spend at least some of their time in the field said their workplace is at least somewhat accessible to people with disabilities, and more than half of respondents said their workplace is very accessible. Access to and use of specialized education and services for students with disabilities has also expanded significantly over the past 15 years.
The ADA was enacted to prevent discrimination against Americans with disabilities, but its enforcement benefits the entire population. The ADA has contributed to the improvement of American society as a whole by removing discriminatory barriers to employment, increasing access to and mobility within buildings, and expanding benefits such as temporary sick leave.
But despite the ADA’s more than 30 years of advancing disability rights, accessibility is neither universal nor equitably distributed. One example can be seen in earnings: Workers with disabilities achieved record employment gains in 2023, but their average earnings are still much lower than those of workers without disabilities, with median annual earnings of about $31,000 in 2022 compared to nearly $44,000 for workers without disabilities.
Poverty disproportionately affects people with disabilities, twice as often as people without disabilities: 20.4% and 10.1%, respectively, according to Census Bureau data. Living with a disability also increases the likelihood of other health concerns, including obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Adding poverty to that reality further exacerbates the health concerns of Americans with disabilities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 1 in 4 people ages 18-44 with a disability have unmet health needs due to cost. Reducing and simplifying health care costs would have many benefits for people with disabilities as well as the general population.
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Learn more about disabilities in Oregon
In Oregon, about 15.8% of people have a disability, the most common being a mobility impairment. People with disabilities may have co-occurring disabilities, such as hearing and vision impairments or mobility issues, that make it difficult for them to live independently.
Nationwide, 13.4% of Americans report having one or more disabilities, with the most common disability being mobility-related. Approximately 7% of Americans have a condition that prevents or impedes their ability to walk. Ensuring accessibility for people with mobility issues requires the greatest infrastructure changes, such as adding ramps and elevators to buildings, adding lifts to pools and hot tubs, and providing wheelchair spaces on public transportation.
Helping these people has also spurred technological advances, such as increasingly advanced wheelchairs and vehicles that people with amputations can drive. In the digital world, accessibility means things like proper spacing of text and buttons so users can enlarge the text, click exactly where they want, no time limits, and avoiding forced drag-and-drop interfaces.
Disabilities that limit the ability to live independently (reported by 6% of Americans) are also common nationwide. Barriers to living independently include physical or mental limitations that prevent one from completing errands or household chores. These barriers, along with self-care disabilities, most often result in the need for a caregiver, whether that be a family member living with them, an in-home caregiver, or placement in a nursing home.
Individualized treatment plans, skill-development training, and smart home technology help people with independent living disabilities maintain their independence, while flexible work schedules, remote work capabilities, and family and medical leave provide more opportunities for families to better support their disabled loved ones.
Approximately 6% of Americans have cognitive disabilities, such as autism or dementia, that can impair their ability to concentrate and make decisions. To increase accessibility for people with these disabilities, individuals and organizations can communicate information in multiple modes, including audio, text, and images. Website interfaces can provide multiple navigation options to make them easily accessible to everyone. Consistency, predictability, and simplicity in websites, signage, and other communications increase accessibility for people with these disabilities and clarity for all viewers.
Deafness (which affects 3.7% of Americans) is increasingly featured in the media, from blockbuster movies like “A Quiet Place” to central characters in shows like Marvel’s “Hawkeye” and AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” Deaf social media influencers are also spreading knowledge of American Sign Language. Subtitling is becoming more common among people who are not deaf.
Accessibility has also improved for people with visual impairments (reported to 2.5% of Americans): People who experience partial or total blindness now have better access to more specific alternative text/descriptions for images, voice recognition technology, integrated color vision testing, and more.
Understanding the specific needs within our communities is essential to eliminating stigma and continually improving accessibility in the physical and digital worlds for all Americans.
This story features data reporting and writing by Paxtyn Merten and is part of a series on leveraging data automation in the 50 states and Washington DC.
This story originally appeared on accessiBe , produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
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Stacker is a news outlet that produces and distributes data journalism to news outlets around the world. Founded in 2017, Stacker combines data analysis with rich editorial context, leveraging trusted sources and subject matter experts to drive storytelling. This article is republished under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.