People with Disabilities: Population, Prevalence, and Education in the Tucson, Arizona MSA

This is the first of three articles that explore a multidimensional view of people with disabilities in Arizona. The data in this article explore the prevalence of people with disabilities, characteristics of veterans with disabilities, disability by educational attainment, and characteristics of students with disabilities.

According to the World Health Organization, disability data are essential for countries to be able to develop evidence-based policies to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), measure progress towards national targets, as well as to take stock of the challenges that remain unresolved. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international treaty that identifies the rights of persons with disabilities as well as the obligations on States parties to the Convention to promote, protect and ensure those rights.

All children need education, but children with disabilities may have limited social and economic opportunities according to UNICEF. As highlighted by Aron and Loprest (2012), the special education system has given children with disabilities much greater access to public education, established an infrastructure for educating them, helped with the earlier identification of disabilities, and promoted greater inclusion of these children alongside their nondisabled peers.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines disability as a long-lasting physical, mental, or emotional condition. This condition can make it difficult for a person to do activities such as walking, climbing stairs, dressing, bathing, learning, or remembering. This condition can also impede a person from being able to go outside the home alone or to work at a job or business. In 2021, approximately 13.2% of Arizonans reported having a disability. That was 0.6 percentage points higher than the national rate. Tucson had a higher percentage of people with disabilities compared to the nation and the state. Specifically, 14.9% of the population in Tucson had disabilities. Arizona had a lower rate of Black or African Americans and Native Hawaiians with a disability compared to the nation (See Table 1 below which provides population characteristics for individuals with a disability in Arizona and the U.S.). The percentage of the population with disabilities in Arizona and the Tucson MSA increased by 1.6 percentage points between 2013 and 2021, exceeding the US percentage point increase over the same period (0.5) (See Figure 1).

Figure 1: Percentage of People with Disabilities from 2013 to 2021 in the U.S., Arizona and the Tucson MSA

Table 1: Percent of Population with a Disability, by Characteristics (2021)

Types of Disability

The collection of disability data relies on the purposes for which the data are being used and the survey methodologies employed, as the definition of a disability can vary. The Census Bureau designated disabilities into six categories: hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living. An individual who reports one of the six distinctive types is considered to have a disability. In 2021, Tucson posted higher rates of all types of disabilities than the state and the nation, except self-care difficulty, which equaled that of the U.S. As shown in Figure 2, the most commonly reported disability in Arizona (6.8%) and Tucson (7.7%) is the ambulatory disability, which is defined as having difficulty climbing stairs or walking. It is followed by independent living at 5.5% in Arizona and 6.4% in Tucson, which involves having difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping, because of physical, mental, or emotional problems. Individuals with cognitive disabilities have difficulty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions because of physical, mental, or emotional concerns. In Tucson, 6.2% of the population reported a cognitive disability. Self-care disabilities are present in 2.6% of Tucson's population and include difficulty bathing or dressing.

Figure 2: Type of Disability (2021)

Veteran with Disabilities

The number of veterans with disabilities since 2013 has risen by approximately 960,000, a 27.5% increase, underscoring the need to allocate special care and support for this group. Based on the frequency, duration, and severity of symptoms, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) assigns a disability rating to service-connected conditions. Overall, VA disability ratings are intended to compensate veterans for average impairments in earning capacity resulting from their service-connected condition(s). Those who qualify for VA monthly compensation must have a combined disability rating of at least 10%. This monetary benefit is tax-free at both the federal and state levels.

In 2021, approximately 1.6 million veterans (37.1%) had a service-connected disability rating of 70 percent or higher in the U.S., which means that they received $17,336.5 (veteran alone no dependents) in VA compensation during that year. Tucson and Arizona had 31.1% and 33.1% shares, respectively. On the other hand, Tucson, in comparison to Arizona and the United States, reported a higher percentage of veterans in the 30 or 40 percent (17.1%), and 50 or 60 percent (15.4%) ranges in 2021. Figure 3 highlights the share of veterans in Tucson with the service-connected disability. Click on the drop-down menu to view Arizona or the U.S.

Figure 3: Percent of Veterans, by Service-Connected Disability Status (2021)

Reference: Aron, L., Loprest, P., (2012), Disability and the Education System, The Future of Children 22 (1), pp. 97-122.