People with disabilities face daily limitations that are as varied as they are difficult to imagine for those who do not suffer from them. The experience of these difficulties is even more burdensome when accompanied by feelings of discrimination from the environment. Regarding the extent of these feelings among people with disabilities in Spain, we have a relatively recent source of statistical information: the Survey on Disability, Personal Autonomy and Dependency Situations, carried out between 2020 and 2021 by the National Statistics Institute (INE) and published in 2022 (known as EDAD 2020)[1]. Among the many questions this survey asks people with disabilities, some refer to whether they have ever felt discriminated against “because of their disability” in areas of their daily lives, with discrimination meaning that they have not been allowed to do something, have been made to feel inferior or ignored, have been bothered or have not been offered information adapted to their particular needs.
Among the areas asked about by AGE 2020, the most generic are “social relationships, leisure time, travel” and “travel or travel by transport”. In both areas, the responses of people with disabilities overwhelmingly indicate the absence of perceptions of discrimination. Those who answer that they have “never” experienced discrimination are 91% and 94%, respectively, while those who say they have felt discrimination in these areas “many times” or “constantly” do not reach 3%; between 5% and 7% respond that they have perceived it “sometimes”. The differences between men and women are very small, widening slightly when asked about social relations, an area in which more men acknowledge having suffered discrimination; however, men also answer in a very large proportion (89%) that they have “never” felt discriminated against in this sphere of their daily lives.
Such feelings are also very rare when those who are employed at the time of the survey are asked if they have felt discriminated against “in their company or workplace” or if they have experienced “mobbing”. In the first case, 88% denied having experienced discrimination; in the second, the percentage was 93%, although with a not insignificant difference between women (91%) and men (96%).
Overall, these responses portray a society that disapproves of discrimination and respects people with disabilities. This portrait fits with the data provided by the latest Eurobarometer on discrimination published by the European Commission (2019), according to which Spain has the highest number of general population aged 15 and over who have friends or acquaintances with disabilities: almost four out of five (78%) answered yes to this question, 15 percentage points above the European Union average.
AGE 2020 also shows that the low levels of perceived discrimination among people with disabilities in Spain are also observed in areas regulated by the State, such as the provision of health services or the exercise of civil and political rights. Thus, 90% of people with disabilities aged 6 years or older have never perceived discrimination in health services (Figure 4), and an even higher percentage of people with disabilities aged 18 years or older give the same answer (“never”) when asked if they have perceived discrimination on the basis of their disability when exercising their civil and political rights.
These are data that deserve to be interpreted as the achievement of an extensive community of individuals and social groups, led by the numerous organizations in the disability sector dedicated to claiming the rights of people with disabilities, making the different disabilities visible and offering those affected information and assistance of various kinds. However, the very high percentages of people with disabilities who do not feel discriminated against should not hide the fact that many thousands of them have had other experiences. Indeed, when the number of people who represent these low percentages who have experienced discrimination is calculated, the figures take on a more “real” dimension: more than 14,000 people with disabilities aged 16 or over have felt “often” or “constantly” discriminated against in the workplace; around 50,000 people aged 6 or over have “often” or “constantly” experienced discrimination in travel or transportation; and around 100,000 in health care services or in social relations, leisure time or travel.
In light of these figures, it is not surprising that in the aforementioned Eurobarometer, four out of every ten respondents in Spain were of the opinion that discrimination on the grounds of disability is “quite widespread” (30%) or “very widespread” (9%) in the country (percentages, in any case, considerably lower than those obtained in surveys carried out in France, Portugal, Greece, Belgium or the Netherlands) (Graph 6) (Graph 6). Also close to that proportion (37%) were those who thought that when a company wants to hire someone and can choose between two candidates with equal skills and qualifications, disability is a disadvantage.
But if there is one indicator that, in terms of employment, highlights a clear disadvantage for people with disabilities, it is the unemployment rate, which quantifies those who want to work and cannot find a job. Estimated on the basis of the AGE 2020, this rate was 30% at the start of the current decade, double that of the general population at the time. More than 160,000 people with disabilities who were unemployed (84.1 thousand women and 76.2 thousand men) were looking for work and could not find it. It is likely that this high unemployment rate is largely due to mismatches between the job skills of job seekers and the needs of employers. However, given that, according to numerous studies, employment is a key factor in social integration, reducing this unemployment rate by increasing the resources allocated to training and job placement programs for people with disabilities could make an effective contribution to improving their quality of life. Facilitating their exit from the labor market, as has been done this year through a Royal Decree on early retirement, can undoubtedly be helpful for part of the group, especially for those who are at the end of their working lives; but promoting labor market integration is just as important, if not more so, especially for younger people with disabilities.
In short, on the Day of Persons with Disabilities, which will be celebrated on December 3, we can recognize and celebrate as a society that a large majority of those in Spain who are affected by disability problems do not feel discriminated against by their environment; but it is also necessary to become aware that this achievement is insufficient to ensure the best living conditions that Spanish society can offer to people with disabilities.