For people with certain types of disabilities, these kinds of breakthroughs have changed the way they live promoting positive self worth, pride and an independent lifestyle. Highlights from Economic Briefing Last week, Royal Bank released an economic briefing on the outlook for people with disabilities. The report noted that the combination of the strong North American economy, major legislative initiatives and technological innovation provides an environment for unprecedented improvement. As a society, we ve never been in a better position to offer greater opportunities to traditionally disadvantaged groups of individuals. However, while we have made progress, the reality is that during the last two decades, disabled individuals have participated only to a minor extent in the economic growth of North America.
Deep inequalities continue to exist.
And the result is that disabled people generally suffer from missed opportunities throughout their lives. One out of six Canadians has a disability, but they represent less than one out of every 10 employed Canadians. And an important fact to note is that the number of Canadians with disabilities is growing. By 2010, there will be 1.4 million more working-age Canadians with some form of disability. And when they move into retirement, there will be significant pressure applied on family networks to care for them.