Columbia Among Top Cities For People With Disabilities: Study

COLUMBIA, MD — Columbia is one of the best places to live for people with disabilities, a new study found. The personal finance website WalletHub examined factors such as accessibility of public facilities, quality of health care and the ability to live on disability income in a comparison of more than 180 cities across the U.S.

To ease the process of finding the best place to live while managing a disability, WalletHub evaluated cities across 31 key metrics. The data included things like the number of occupational therapists per capita, the share of people with disabilities and the number of wheelchair-accessible grocery stores and trails per capita.

No. 1 on the list overall was Overland Park, Kansas, which ranked tops in the "economy category." The experts at WalletHub said that meant it was the best place to live on disability income. Overland Park has one of the highest employment rates in the country for people with disabilities, the survey found.

In the "economy" category, Columbia ranked No. 13. In terms of health care for those with disabilities, it also ranked No. 13. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was the No. 1 in the health care category.

Overall, Columbia ranked No. 5 on WalletHub's 2018 list of Best & Worst Cities for People with Disabilities.

Best Cities for People with Disabilities

1. Overland Park, KS
2. South Burlington, VT
3. Sioux Falls, SD
4. Scottsdale, AZ
5. Columbia, MD
6. San Francisco, CA
7. Rapid City, SD
8. St. Louis, MO
9. Bismarck, ND
10. Grand Rapids, MI

Worst Cities for People with Disabilities

1. New Haven, CT
2. Providence, RI
3. Winston-Salem, NC
4. Bridgeport, CT
5. Gulfport, MS
6. Brownsville, TX
7. San Bernardino, CA
8. North Las Vegas, NV
9. Huntsville, AL
10. Worcester, MA

See the full report from WalletHub, which used data to compile its list from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and others.

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