Disability as Inequality: Social Disparities, Health Disparities, and Participation in Daily Activities
Disability as Inequality: Social Disparities, Health
Disparities, and Participation in Daily Activities
Ca
ie L. Shandra
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Disability as Inequality
Disability as Inequality: Social Disparities, Health
Disparities, and Participation in Daily Activities
Ca
ie L. Shandra, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Individuals with disabilities experience lower education levels, lower employmentrates, fewer household resources, and poorer health than people without disabil-ities. Yet, despite comprising more than one-eighth of the US population, people
with disabilities are seldom integrated into sociological studies of inequality. This
study uses time use as a lens through which to understand one type of inequality
etween working-aged people with and without disabilities: participation in daily
activities. It also tests whether social disparities (as suggested by the social model of
disability) or health disparities (as suggested by the medical model of disability)
explain a larger percentage of participation differences. I first consider if disability
predicts daily time in market work, nonmarket work, tertiary (health-related) activities,
and leisure—net of health and sociodemographic characteristics. Next, I utilize
Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to assess the relative contribution of these character-
istics in explaining time differences. Results from the American Time Use Survey indi-
cate that adults with disabilities spend less time than adults without disabilities in
market work and more time in tertiary activities and leisure. There is no difference in
nonmarket time. Health accounts for the largest percentage of the explained compo-
nent of tertiary time differences, but depending on the choice of predictors, sociode-
mographic characteristics account for as much—or more—of the explained
component of differences in market and leisure time. Results indicate the importance
of disentangling disability from health in sociological studies of inequality. They also
support a hy
id disability model in suggesting that both health and sociodemo-
graphic characteristics determine how disability shapes daily life.
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This paper benefited from conversations with Dennis Hogan, Vicki Freedman, Tay McNamara,
Sarah Flood, Dara Shifrer, Angela Frederick, Jennifer Pearson, Rachel Fish, Sean Clouston, and
Laura Senier. All e
ors are my own. The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant
from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Disability Research
Consortium. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the author and do not repre-
sent the opinions or policy of SSA or any agency of the federal government. Neither the US govern-
ment nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any wa
anty, expressed or implied,
or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the
contents of this report. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by
trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply endorse-
ment, recommendation, or favoring by the US government or any agency thereof. Direct co
espon-
dence to Ca
ie L. Shandra, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook,
Stony Brook, NY XXXXXXXXXX; e-mail: Ca
ie.Shandra@stony
ook.edu.
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© The Author(s XXXXXXXXXXPublished by Oxford University Press on behalf of the
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please e-mail: XXXXXXXXXX.
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Advance Access publication on 6 June 2018
Disability as Inequality 157
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ie.Shandra@stony
ook.edu
The study of disability has been largely peripheral to the study of inequality
within the discipline of sociology (Green and Barnartt 2016)—an oversight that
Green and Gerschick XXXXXXXXXXcall “inexplicable given the life circumstances of
people with disabilities which rival those of the most disadvantaged groups in
the United States.” People with disabilities experience lower levels of educational
attainment, lower rates of employment, and fewer household resources than
people without disabilities (Brault 2012; Erickson, Lee, and Schrader 2016).
They also comprise a sizeable percentage of the population. Between 12.6 per-
cent (Erickson, Lee, and Schrader 2016) and 18.7 percent (Brault 2012) of peo-
ple in the United States are estimated to have some sort of disability—
comparable to the percentage of people who are either Black or Hispanic
(Humes, Jones, and Ramirez 2011).
The question of how to integrate disability into analyses of inequality is not
new (Green and Barnartt 2016; Thomas XXXXXXXXXXLike race, class, and gender, dis-
ability has implications for discrimination, status attainment, intergenerational
mobility, and stigma (Ameri et al. 2017; Green et al. 2005; Janus XXXXXXXXXXUnlike
ace, class, and gender, disability fits less neatly into sociological models of
ascribed or achieved statuses: Depending on the nature of the impairment, peo-
ple can transition in and out of disability over the life course (Barnartt 2010;
Mann and Honeycutt XXXXXXXXXXDisability is both predicted by (Zhang, Hayward,
and Yu 2016) and predictive of (Loprest and Maag 2007) social disparities. As
such, approaches to the study of disability and the disablement process remain
contested (Thomas 2007).
Nonetheless, the disadvantages faced by people with disabilities are well
documented, unequivocal, and omitted from most sociological research. This
study contributes to the literature on disability and inequality by investigating
how disability shapes everyday life—specifically, time spent in daily activities.
Time use is an advantageous lens through which to evaluate inequality because
it is a bounded resource and time allocated to one activity ca
ies opportunity
costs of not engaging in other activities (Williams, Masuda, and Tallis 2016).
Likewise, time use also signals activity participation—including the types of
activities that are crucial for inclusion and independent living (Graf 2008; Suh
2016). Understanding why people with and without disabilities spend their time
differently is one way to understand how disability