• Posted December 12, 2025

Many Older Americans Don’t See Themselves as Disabled, Survey Finds

Americans may be getting older and need help doing things that were once routine, but a new survey finds only a fraction of seniors see themselves as having a disability.

"It’s a familiar story," Megan Morris, director of the Disability Equity Collaborative at New York University, told KFF Health News. "Many people still feel like 'disability' is a dirty word."

A recent University of Michigan survey underscored their reluctance. 

Fewer than 18% of respondents over age 65 saw themselves as having a disability, though their responses to six questions that the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey uses to track disability rates paint a much different picture.

The survey asks whether respondents have trouble hearing or seeing; limitations walking or climbing stairs; trouble dressing or bathing; difficulty working, concentrating or remembering; or problems leaving the home.

Roughly a third of 65- to 74-year-old respondents were having trouble with one or more of those things, the Michigan survey found. That rose to more than 44% among folks over 75.

And when respondents were asked about conditions, including speech disorders or breathing problems, that would require accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the percentages were even higher. 

Half of the 65-to-74 group and about two-thirds of older respondents reported disabilities, the survey found. 

And yet, fewer than 1 in 5 had ever received an accommodation to which they were entitled from their health care providers. Moreover, only 1 in 4 had had asked for one, the survey showed.

Michelle Meade, director of the University of Michigan Center for Disability Health and Wellness, said the reluctance to seek help is something of an American trait — even when it is required to be available.

"We’re supposed to toughen up and battle through it" when faced with a disability, she said.

That mindset is especially true among older Americans whose attitudes formed before the ADA became law in 1990 or before the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act guaranteed access to public education 50 years ago, KFF reported.

"It’s going to be hard for that older generation," Morris said. "Disability was something that was locked away. Younger folks are more open to seeing disability as being part of a community."

Admitting one is struggling with everyday tasks "can make a stressful situation easier," Anjali Forber-Pratt, research director at the American Association of Health and Disability, told KFF. 

In health care settings, for example, accommodations may include X-ray machines that let patients stay seated; exam tables that go up and down; and scales that wheelchair users can roll onto.

Providers may offer large print materials and magnifiers for people who have visual impairments, as well as amplification devices for folks with hearing loss.

Advocates say identifying as a person with a disability has other benefits as well. 

Compared to disabled people who don’t identify as disabled, those who do have higher self-esteem, less depression and anxiety, and a greater sense of "self-efficacy," studies have found.

It can mean "being part of a community of people who are good problem-solvers, who figure things out and work in partnership to do things better," Meade said.

The survey was conducted online and by phone in February among 1,353 Michiganders age 50 to 95 and 2,528 adults outside Michigan. 

More information

Government services for people with disabilities are outlined at USA.gov.

SOURCE: KFF Health News, Dec. 11, 2025