Mikrocensus 2002, 2. quarter: Utilisation of PC and Internet, Impairments and Disabilities

More than 37 million handicapped people live in the European Union. The Council of Europe has declared the year 2003 the European year of handicapped people to give them a chance to make people all over Europe aware of their interests. One aim is the development of the measures needed to better integrate handicapped persons in all parts of social life. In this context, the European Commission consigned a EU-wide study (performed as an ad-hoc module to the LFS) on the employment of handicapped people in the year 2002. The goal was to collect a comprehensive and connected data set on the employments situation of handicapped people. In Austria, the study was conducted as a Mikrozensus special survey (handicaps and disabilities) in June 2002. Starting point of the survey program was the question on lasting health problems or handicaps. The term lasting denoted a time span of at least 6 months. The basic concept of health problems is broad. It includes physical injury, sensory problems (e.g. subjectively felt visual impairments despite wearing glasses), heart- and breathing troubles and walking impairment, as well as other progressive diseases (e.g. cancer, Parkinson disease, etc.), psychological problems and learning disabilities. In addition to the question on the existence of a lasting health problem or a handicap, it was asked whether this problem or handicap affected the everyday life. Everyday life denotes important personal performances, for instance eating, washing/bathing, exercises such as climbing the stairs, going shopping, cooking or doing the laundry. An impairment of theses performances exists if they persist despite the usage of aids (e.g. hearing aid, glasses), the utilisation of medical treatments and the help of other people