Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Volume 33, Issue 3, Page 147-157, December 2022.
Academic and government policy evidence that quantifies the disadvantage experienced by people with disabilities in the United Kingdom relies on “global” self-reported measures of disability available in large-scale national surveys. Understanding who is captured by such measures and the “process of disablement” is therefore vital. This article applies multivariate regression analysis to nationally representative and uniquely rich data for Great Britain from the Life Opportunities Survey (2009–2011) to investigate the relationship between a well-established measure of activity-limiting disability and the type and severity of impairment. Conditional on personal characteristics, the risk of disability is found to increase with the presence and severity of impairment. It also varies dramatically by impairment type, being highest for those with impairments relating to mobility and mental ill-health, and lowest for impairments relating to vision and hearing.