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Employment status and commute distance of Canadians with disabilities

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Abstract

Alleviating the disability challenges experienced by people with impairments is increasingly seen as an important step towards building more inclusive societies. The very definition of disability has evolved to shift the burden from people with impairments to perform at “normal” competency levels and towards a fuller recognition of the ways that society can either build or tear down barriers that hinder their full participation in society. The objective of this paper is to investigate the factors that act as facilitators or barriers to participation by people with impairments. Specifically, the study is conducted within the context of employment status and commute distance, two outcomes indicative of the ability of individuals with impairments to engage society. Analysis is based on Canada’s 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, a post-censal survey that collects information on various aspects of disabilities for a representative sample of Canadian society. The results, based on a probit model for employment status and a regression model for commute distance, provide insights into the personal, economic, and living space factors that affect the probability of being employed and traveling longer distances.

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Notes

  1. For confidentiality reasons we are prevented from disclosing descriptive statistics regarding this dataset.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada for this project. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are the authors’ alone and do not reflect the position of this or any other Department of the Government of Canada. The comments of anonymous reviewers in the Transportation Research Board and the Journal Transportation helped to improve the quality of the paper. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. McMaster Institute for Transport and Logistics, School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    Steven Farber & Antonio Páez

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  1. Steven Farber
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  2. Antonio Páez
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Correspondence to Antonio Páez.

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Farber, S., Páez, A. Employment status and commute distance of Canadians with disabilities. Transportation 37, 931–952 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-010-9268-y

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