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WalletHub: G.R. Is 2018's 10th Best City For People With Disabilities

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.  The personal finance website WalletHub just released its report on 2018’s Best and Worst Cities for People with Disabilities.  They’re report ranks Grand Rapids as the 10th best City for those with disabilities. 

“About 1 in 4 U.S. adults has a disability that impacts their major activities. That impact can be felt even more depending on where you live. We wanted to do a deep dive into where those cities could use some improvement or where those cities are an example for others.”

Jill Gonzalez, analyst with Wallet Hub, says the City of Grand Rapids falls into the category of as an example for others… coming in as WalletHub’s  2018 10th Best City For people with Disabilities.  That’s out of 182 cities in the report.

It’s number ten in the top ten. And of the 3 categories we looked at, it did well in healthcare both in terms of cost and access and quality of life. The economy for those with disabilities could be a little bit better, but the other two, outweigh it.”

Gonzalez says Wallethub looked at the cities across 31 key indicators of disability friendliness.  She again highlights healthcare, where Grand Rapids scored well.

“And by that we mean, having a high number of family doctors, occupational therapists, especially per capita, the average per person health insurance premium for a disabled person is relatively low next to the rest of the country, cost of a doctor visit, relatively low.”

While Grand Rapids scored well there, Gonzalez says Grand Rapids could use a little work in housing affordability and the employment rate for those with disabilities.

“Those numbers could be a little bit better.  It’s tracking with the rest of the country there. So, it has everything else, you know, It has the healthcare, it has the quality of life.  It just needs to be sure people are aware of this, and really that businesses are aware, it’s a great place for people with disabilities, now it’s time to be hiring those people.”

Gonzalez says you can find the full study and more details about Grand Rapids at wallethub.com.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.