People with Disabilities: A Texas Profile

Table 4: Number of Individuals in U.S. Reporting Each Type of Disability, 2011
Difficulty Number
Percent of Population with
Disabilities Reporting
Difficulty
Ambulatory difficulty 19,892,572 53.5%
Cognitive difficulty 14,078,648 37.9%
Independent living difficulty 13,437,594 36.1%
Hearing difficulty 10,474,872 28.2%
Self‐care difficulty 7,682,209 20.7%
Vision difficulty 6,623,262 17.8%
Total with a disability 37,188,115
Table notes: 2011 ACS summary table data. Reported disability categories are not mutually exclusive and one
individual can report having several disabilities. Survey participants were asked to report serious difficulties.
Percentages represent the portion of the population of individuals with disabilities reporting each difficulty.
The specific types of reported disabilities are presented on the following page in Table 5 by age
categories. Not all disability questions were asked of each age category. Only hearing and vision
difficulties are reported for individuals under the age of five. Additionally, independent living difficulties
are only reported for individuals 18 years of age and older. The increased prevalence of disabilities can
again be observed for individuals in the older age categories. Less than one percent of the civilian
noninstitutionalized population under five years old is reported as having a disability. The most
frequently reported disability of the population between the ages of five and 17 is cognitive difficulty.
Ambulatory, cognitive, and independent living difficulties are the most‐reported disabilities of
individuals between the ages of 18 and 64. Greater percentages of individuals 65 years of age and older
report ambulatory, independent living, and hearing difficulties. For convenience, similar national and
state data have been combined in Appendix B.
Texas Workforce Investment Council 11