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Accessibility: A source of future anxiety and a significant consideration
for Canadian consumers today
Seven-in-ten Canadians say universal accessibility should be the goal for
newly constructed buildings
January 22, 2018 – As Canada’s population grows older, millions of Canadians
find themselves worrying about decreased mobility, vision and hearing and
the impact it may have on their own lives or the lives of loved ones.
A new study from the Angus Reid Institute, conducted in partnership with the
Rick Hansen Foundation, finds more than two-thirds of Canadians expressing
concern that someone in their lives will face such challenges over the next
decade or so.
Currently, approximately three-in-ten say that accessibility is a
consideration for them when they’re thinking about which places they will go
to and which they will avoid within their communities.
This evidently creates a significant consideration for businesses and
service providers in planning accessibility infrastructure. Canadians voice
widespread support for universal accessibility policy, particularly when it
comes to new construction of buildings and homes.
It’s an issue Canadians anticipate will have a growing presence in their
lives in the coming years. Roughly the same two-thirds who voice concern
about a family member facing decreased mobility, vision, or hearing in the
future say they have the same concern about themselves.
More Key Findings:
•Approximately one-quarter of Canadians (24%) self-identify as having a
mobility, vision or hearing disability or challenge; further, 47 per cent
say they spend time with or help someone who is dealing with these
difficulties.
•Three-in-ten (28%) 35-54-year-olds say they anticipate mobility, vision or
hearing challenges arising in the next five to 10 years. This rises to 32
per cent among those ages 55 and older
•One-in-five Canadians (21%) say that knowing a business in their community
was certified as accessible would lead them to support that business more
often
•Canadians can be grouped into four distinct categories based on their
experiences with – and concern about disabilities and challenges affecting
their vision, hearing and mobility. The four groups are: The Directly
Affected (24% of the general population), Affiliated (30%), Concerned (32%),
and Unaffected (14%). Each has a unique relationship to each of the issues
canvassed in this survey
Part 1: Experiences with disability
The current landscape
The Angus Reid Institute asked Canadians if they have what they consider to
be a physical disability. Importantly, this offered respondents the
opportunity to say they have a disability outright, or to say that they have
mobility, vision or hearing challenges that make their day-to-day life more
challenging, while not identifying it as a ‘disability’.
Overall, one-in-ten (9%) say they have a disability, while another 15 per
cent state they have challenges.
As one might predict, these proportions grow with age:
The relevance of age on this issue is further illuminated when respondents
are asked about the impact of the physical challenges they face. Younger
Canadians, those between the age of 18 and 34, are much more likely to say
that the difficulties they face are minimal, while one-quarter of their
older compatriots say their physical challenges are a major hindrance. These
issues include chronic pain, difficulty walking, arthritis and more. (View
comprehensive tables for more here)
While this individual element is important to know, it is also worth
considering the full scope of mobility, vision and hearing challenges in
Canada. More than a third of Canadians (36%) have close friends of family
members who face these difficulties.
Further, those who identify as having a disability are more likely to have
family or close friends who do as well. Overall, 22 per cent of Canadians
say someone close to them has a physical disability – this rises to 54 per
cent among those who have their own disability – as shown in the graph
below:
This translates into three-in-ten Canadians who say they have a relationship
with someone who has mobility, vision or hearing challenges or a disability,
and another one-in-five who say they “rarely” see someone who fits this
criteria.
Concern for the future
Accessibility may matter to everyone, but it is not necessarily something
Canadians think about on a day-to-day basis. Thus, respondents were asked to
consider how accessibility concerns might enter their lives, if at all, in
the future. Overall, two-thirds of Canadians are at least a little concerned
about this in the coming years:
Younger people are less likely to express concern about facing mobility
challenges in the next few years, with young men especially inclined to see
themselves as invulnerable:
Similar numbers of Canadians express concern that someone else in their life
may face increased mobility challenges or other physical disabilities in the
coming years, with close to seven-in-ten (68%) at least “a bit” concerned.
Women between the ages of 35 and 54, who often find themselves in caretaker
roles for aging parents, are especially likely to say they are either
somewhat or seriously concerned about this, as seen in the graph that
follows. It’s worth noting, however, that roughly equal numbers across age
and gender groups express at least “a bit” of concern about close friends or
family members facing decreased mobility in the near future.
Four groups based on experience
Utilizing the data from these questions about Canadians’ relationship to
mobility, vision and hearing disability and physical challenges, the Angus
Reid Institute constructed four groups. For the methodology used to separate
respondents please see the end of this report. The four groups are the
Directly Affected (24% of the population), the Affiliated (30%), the
Concerned (32%), and the Unaffected (14%).
The Directly Affected are those who are dealing with a mobility, vision or
hearing disability or physical challenge themselves. The affiliated, on the
other hand, are those who do not have an issue personally, but have a close
friend or family member who does. The third group, the Concerned, fit
neither of these first two criteria, but are concerned about how these
issues will affect them in the next five to 10 years. The final group, the
Unaffected, are the 14 per cent of Canadians who say they have no
relationships and no concerns when it comes to disability issues.
The age distribution shows that all generations are affected. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, younger Canadians are more likely to be Unaffected, while
older ones are more likely to be Directly Affected:
Notably, the Directly Affected are significantly more likely to have
household incomes of below $50K, while the three additional groups share a
similar income distribution:
Part 2: Accessibility and the built environment
How accessible are our spaces?
Many Canadians take for granted the ability to access any building, event or
service anytime they want. This is not the case for those dealing with
mobility, vision or hearing challenges – even temporary ones. Indeed,
one-in-five Canadians say they often or sometimes run into temporary
accessibility challenges, whether these be injuries, carrying heavy luggage
or items, or navigating life with a stroller.
Respondents were asked to consider some of these same challenges and imagine
the experience of trying to get around parts of their community. How do
homes, restaurants, public buildings and other built environments measure up
when it comes to accessibility?
Notably, a significant number of Canadians, one-in-three (33%) say their own
homes would present difficulty to a person with a mobility, vision or
hearing challenge.
When considering the broader community, large chain stores, malls, medical
office and public buildings are perceived as easier to navigate. Smaller,
more independent stores, restaurants and other people’s homes, are seen as
having more barriers to access.
Here, Canadians who are more closely acquainted with disability are also
more likely to perceive these areas as posing accessibility challenges. The
Unaffected are noticeably less concerned on each:
And what about those places where many Canadians spend the bulk of their
time outside of the home? Among those who currently work or go to school,
approximately four-in-five say buildings are easy for anyone to access. This
ratio holds across the four groups, though it’s worth noting that the
question was only asked of those who are currently working or going to
school. Anyone with challenges significant enough to prevent working or
seeking education outside the home may have a different perspective on the
accessibility of a typical school or workplace.
Main challenges of inaccessible spaces
Overall, three-in-ten Canadians – the equivalent of roughly 9 million adults
– say that accessibility is a consideration for them when they’re thinking
about which places they will go to and which they will avoid. This creates a
significant consideration for the businesses and service providers in
planning accessibility infrastructure:
This is apparently a consideration even for homeowners whose friends may
view their property as inaccessible. Indeed, when those who say
accessibility is a concern are asked which buildings or areas they avoid,
other people’s houses tops the list, with small businesses close behind:
This data also offer a window into what can be done to address these
problems. The most common issues cited by those who avoid certain places are
seen in the following graph:
Future challenges anticipated
While one-in-three Canadians (33%) currently say they have issues getting
around their own home, a full majority say that they are anticipating
challenges moving around at home in decades to come. Asked to look 10 to 15
years down the road, more than half say they are at least occasionally
concerned about what their mobility may look like for themselves and their
family:
Many are taking proactive measures to get ahead of any potential problem. In
fact, close to four-in-ten (37%) say they have already made changes or plan
to, in anticipation of future accessibility challenges. The Directly
Affected are more likely to have done each of these actions than the three
other groups:
While future anxiety is evidently held by a significant number of Canadians,
it is also worth noting that slightly more than half say that they see
accessibility being continually improved in their communities. Some 53 per
cent say their community is making incremental progress, though a
substantial proportion say they have not been seeing much improvement (39%):
Part 3: The policy environment
Low awareness of current accessibility rules
Currently, Canadian accessibility standards vary from city to city and
province to province. Because of this, the survey asked respondents to share
their familiarity with the rules in place where they live.
Most Canadians know relatively little about accessibility standards in their
city or town. Only one-in-ten (10%) say they are “quite familiar” with the
regulations where they live, and fully four-in-ten (40%) say they know only
that such rules exist.
Interestingly, this lack of familiarity extends across the four experience
groups relatively evenly. Those who have a mobility, vision or hearing
disability or physical challenge themselves are not markedly more likely to
profess a deep knowledge of local accessibility standards than those in the
Unaffected group:
Perhaps as a result of this lack of familiarity with local accessibility
standards, Canadians tend to see such rules in their communities as “about
right overall” (39%) or are unsure about what rating they would give (31%).
A large driver of opinion on accessibility regulations where one lives is
knowledge of the regulations in question, as seen in the graph that follows.
In general, Canadians view a lack of accessibility in the built environment
more as a product of cost concerns than as the result of lax regulation or
enforcement:
Universal access, uniform standards
Since ARI and RHF first asked in 2015, Canadians have consistently said
their country should be aiming for universal accessibility whenever
possible.
Researchers included a follow-up question in this 2018 survey, asking
respondents to use the same scale to describe the level of accessibility
that should be the goal for new construction versus existing buildings.
As might be expected, significantly larger numbers say universal access
should be required in new buildings, while fewer say this about existing
spaces that may have been built a long time ago:
The desire for universality going forward can be seen in responses to
another question from this survey, this one about accessibility legislation
and whether there should be a uniform standard for accessibility across
Canada.
Slightly more than half of Canadians (54%) say there should be “one uniform
set of rules for accessibility across Canada,” while roughly one-in-three
(32%) say “different regions may have different needs and should be able to
set their own rules for accessibility. The rest (13%) are unsure.
There were some significant regional response differences to this question,
specifically between Alberta – where more people place themselves on the
local control side of this question – and other provinces:
Regarding accessibility-related upgrades for existing buildings, Canadians
were of the opinion that if government mandates the upgrade then it should
help pay the cost. Nearly half (45%) say governments and building owners
should split the financial burden of renovation evenly, while only
one-in-ten (11%) would place the onus completely on building owners:
Accessibility certification seen as worthwhile
As was the case in 2016, when the Angus Reid Institute assessed Canadian
opinions regarding the creation of a program in Canada similar to LEED – the
U.S.-based Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system that rates
buildings based on their energy efficiency and environmental sustainability
– for accessibility, Canadians overwhelmingly see a certification program
like this as “worthwhile”.
This year, Canadians were asked specifically about the Rick Hansen
Foundation Accessibility Certification (RHFAC). While just 16 per cent say
they are aware of the program currently, the idea is viewed positively by
nearly all respondents. Nine-in-ten Canadians (91%) say the program would be
worthwhile:
Further, large numbers say they would find a certified accessible home
“appealing” if they were looking for a new place to live. The comfort of
knowing that their new home is given RHFAC approval is evidently appealing
to three of the four groups, based on their mindset toward accessibility.
More than seven-in-ten from the Directly Affected, Affiliated and Concerned
say this, while the Unaffected are split evenly:
Overall, one-in-five (21%) also say that this accessibility certification
would impact their shopping habits. This group says that if they knew a
business in their community had been certified as accessible, they would try
to give more of their business to that store. The proportion saying this
rises to one-in-three (33%) among the Directly Affected:
The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) was founded in October 2014 by pollster and
sociologist, Dr. Angus Reid. ARI is a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan
public opinion research foundation established to advance education by
commissioning, conducting and disseminating to the public accessible and
impartial statistical data, research and policy analysis on economics,
political science, philanthropy, public administration, domestic and
international affairs and other socio-economic issues of importance to
Canada and its world.
Pour la version française, cliquez ici
For detailed results by age, gender, region, education, and other
demographics, click here.
For detailed results by the four groups, click here.
Click here for the full report including tables and methodology
Click here for the questionnaire used in this survey
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Shachi Kurl, Executive Director, Angus Reid Institute: 604.908.1693
shachi.kurl@angusreid.org @shachikurl
Dave Korzinski, Research Associate: 250.899.0821
dave.korzinski@angusreid.org
Ian Holliday, Research Associate: 604.442.3312 ian.holliday@angusreid.org
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Accessibility: A source of future anxiety and a significant consideration for Canadian consumers today
