More Independence Main Issue For Disabled One Out Of Five Idaho Households Has A Disabled Person, Survey Shows

A new survey shows that nearly one out of every five households in Idaho has at least one member with a disability that interferes with everyday living.

Specific groups of people with disabilities - minorities and women, the severely disabled, those with no health insurance - need more help in living independently, the survey shows.

But Kelly Buckland, executive director of the State Independent Living Council, says the answer isn’t more money. It’s better use of the funds available now.

“There’s plenty of money in the state, but it’s being used wrongly and unwisely,” Buckland told a news conference Wednesday at Boise State University. He said the state spends six times as much keeping disabled people in institutions as it does helping them live independently.

The Boise State survey estimated that 18.74 percent of Idaho’s residents have a disability. The U.S. Census put that figure at only about 1 percent, but David Scudder of the BSU Survey Research Center said the census questions weren’t broad enough.

Early this year, 635 Idahoans were surveyed randomly by telephone and another 103 supplemental interviews were conducted.

People in the survey cited the need for increased independence as the most important problem faced by people with disabilities.

“What it really means to people with disabilities is being able to get control of their own lives,” said Buckland. “It’s being able to make their own decisions about where they want to live.”

“Anybody can live independently as long as the right support is provided in the home,” said Buckland.

He said a council will be formed during a July 26 meeting to distribute accurate information on the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal law requiring access to public buildings for people with disabilities.

“They will rebut some of the inaccurate information being put out now,” he said.

Those responding to the survey were asked if anybody in the household had difficulty in getting around or were confined to a wheelchair, were paralyzed or had disabling diseases or has lost a leg or an arm.

People also were asked about vision impairment, hearing loss, stroke victims, chronic heart disease, diabetes, mental retardation, developmental problems, mental illness, depression or anxiety or anyone who has gone through alcohol rehabilitation.

Buckland, who is confined to a wheelchair, said people with disabilities want to live on their own, but attitude remains a problem.

“People think somebody needs to take care of them,” he said. “That’s a very prevalent attitude.”