If you had any doubt about how Americans perceive disability the results of a recent survey conducted by Disaboom should be enlightening. The survey found that 52 percent of Americans would rather die than live with a severe disability. Disaboom, an online community for people with disabilities, says it announced the shocking results in an effort to educate people about why this viewpoint is so tragic.

The survey, launched in an effort to understand America's perception of disability, asked: "Which would you choose: Living with a severe disability that forever alters your ability to live an independent life, or death?" The survey findings noted significant attitudinal differences based on age, income, geographic location, and level of education.

Highlights of the research include:

Middle-aged Americans were less willing to live with a severe disability than older Americans; 63 percent of people age 35 to 44 chose death over disability versus 50 percent of people 55 to 64 and 56 percent of Americans 65 and older.

People with higher incomes were more likely to choose death over severe disability. Among those with household income levels of $75,000 or more, 59 percent chose death, versus those with household incomes of $25,000 or less, of whom 45 percent chose death.

Geographic location affected a person's choice of death over severe disability. While only 45 percent of people living in the South chose death, 61 percent of people in the West would rather die than be disabled.

Americans with higher levels of education would rather die than live with a severe disability. Of those with a college education, 57 percent answered that they'd rather die than live with a severe disability, versus 30 percent of respondents who have not completed a high school education.

Perhaps the most striking theme I noticed when reviewing the survey results are the characteristics of those who say they would choose death over disability. A sizable percentage of individuals with higher incomes and greater education responded that they would not want to live with a disability. Perhaps they feel they have more to loose if they became disabled? Rather than addressing perceptions and real quality of life issues it sounds like they’d rather just give up. This particular portion of the survey is quite telling I think as people with greater education are often in positions of influence and can more effectively influence policy and programs that impact the very people they desperately don’t want to be like. So much so that they’d rather die.

The survey was conducted by Kelton Research between June 12, 2008 and June 16, 2008 using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total population of 1,000 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

Source: PR Newswire
Larry W