Dear friends,
I was wondering if anyone is aware of any research confirming, or at least
estimating, how many people with disabilities have more than one
disability? FOR EXAMPLE, a person with cerebral palsy who is also deaf or
hard of hearing, or a person with dyslexia who also has attention deficit
disorder, etc.
I do not have an immediate concrete need for this information. But I am
thinking it would be helpful to have this information at hand in the
future, for example in making the case why a product or service designed
primarily for people with one disability should also be accessible for
people with other disabilities. For example, many CAPTCHA systems (that
force you to prove that you are human and not machine) expect you to
either see or hear, which may be fine if you can do one of these but not
so fine if you are both deaf and blind. Or, a social service agency
geared for deaf clients should also be wheelchair accessible, and so
forth.
I know WHO and the World Bank say that about 15% of the world population
(1 billion people in all) are people with disabilities. But I am
wondering what portion of these one billion people have multiple
disabilities. Although the World Report on Disability acknowledges that
some people may have multiple impairments or health conditions, and that
these can complicate service delivery, I couldn't find statistics on this
issue in the report. Upon trying google, I found that many sources seem to
conflate people with "multiple" disabilities and people with "severe"
disabilities and/or people with intellectual disabilities who have
additional disabilities. But not all people who have multiple
disabilities necessarily have intellectual disabilities among them
(though, of course, some do). And not all necessarily have "severe"
disabilities, by whatever definition of "severe" (though, again, some do).
So even if these sources had statistics, these would still not be
helpful.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Andrea Shettle
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