Who Does the Work? Disability and the Demands of Identity-Theft Protection

Abstract

Identity-theft safeguards differ in the work they ask consumers to perform. This study examines disability differences in reported protective activities and their associations with theft using the 2018 ( n = 102,418) and 2021 ( n = 93,308) National Crime Victimization Survey Identity Theft Supplements. The administrations were analyzed separately because of a questionnaire redesign introduced in 2021. Four self-directed activities and two provider-based measures were compared; security software was examined separately. Respondents with disabilities reported lower adjusted self-directed adoption in both years, with a smaller disability difference for provider-based adoption. Higher provider use among hearing-only or vision-only respondents was not established. Direct comparisons did not support the expectation that disability differences in activity–theft associations were greater for self-directed activities. The findings identify differences in reported adoption but do not establish provider superiority or causal prevention.