When you begin planning your Christmas or New Year’s Eve party this year, I hope you and yours remember any of the millions of people with disabilities that could enjoy your friendship and company.
The U.S. Census bureau document, “Americans with Disabilities 2005,” reveals our nation in 2005 had 54.4 million people with a disability, which included 35 million with a severe disability.
People fitting the “severe disability” category included:
- people using a wheelchair, walker, cane or crutches;
- people unable to perform or needing help in seeing, hearing, speaking, lifting, using stairs, walking or grasping small objects;
- people unable to perform or needing help in getting around inside the home, getting out of bed or a chair, bathing, dressing, eating, or toileting;
- people unable to perform or needing help going outside the home, paying bills, doing light housework, keeping track of taking medicine, or using the telephone;
- people with Alzheimer’s disease, autism, cerebral palsy or a developmental disability;
- people having a mental or emotional condition interfering with daily activities;
- people having a condition making housework or employment difficult to maintain.
Perhaps you know a person fitting one of these categories. My guess is you know more than a dozen. Often, Americans tend to think only of people using wheelchairs or those having an intellectual disability as having a disability.
In 2005, 19 percent of Americans had a disability, and that percentage will grow as Baby Boomers age. About 38 percent of people over age 65, 56 percent over age 80, and 97 percent of people in nursing homes had a severe disability.
People with severe disabilities have a 69 percent unemployment rate. In general, they are far more likely to be physically abused, verbally taunted, sexually assaulted, neglected, discriminated against, poor, and misunderstood.
A 2007 U.S. Department of Justice study found that people with disabilities were 50 percent more likely to experience non-fatal violent crime. People with disabilities that year were victims of 47,000 rapes, 79,000 robberies, 114,000 aggravated assaults, and 476,000 simple assaults. Women with disabilities were especially prone to being victims of any form of violent crime.
So this year, if you have a space at the party table, and you know of a person with a disability who could enjoy your holiday friendship and company, my hope is you invite him or her over. You just might become friends.