Washington Group on Disability Statistics

1
Washington Group on Disability Statistics

• Objectives
• Develop a small set(s) of general disability
  measures to provide information on disability
  worldwide
• Recommend extended set(s) of items to measure
  disability as components of population surveys /
  supplements
• Address methodological issues associated with
  disability measurement

2
Work to this Point 1st Meeting

• Washington, DC - February, 2002
• Agreement on Goals, priority objectives
• Attendance included 60 representatives from 32
  countries

3
Areas of Agreement - 2002

• It is important and possible to craft
  internationally comparable general disability
  measures
• Short and long set(s) of measures that are
  inter-related are needed
• ICF model will be used as a framework in
  developing disability measures
• Census questions are the first priority

4
Work to this Point 2nd Meeting

• Ontario, Canada January, 2003
• Development of Disability Question Matrix
• Purpose
• Domain
• Question Characteristics
• Approximately 25 attended representing 12 to 15
  countries.

5
Areas of Agreement - 2003

• Purpose is important element for deciding on a
  measure.
• Identified 3 main purposes
• Equalization of opportunity seeks to identify
  all those at risk of activity or participation
  limitation
• Monitoring Population seeks to identify all
  those with activity or participation limitation
• Service Provision seeks to identify those with
  most serious problems

6
Work to this Point 3rd Meeting

• Brussels, Belgium February, 2004
• Established purpose of census questions
• Governance
• Attendance included 50 representatives from 30
  countries

7
Areas of Agreement - 2004

• Selected purpose of census questions
  equalization of opportunity
• Types of questions that identify persons who are
  at greater risk to experience
  activity/participation limitations
• Limitations in functioning (seeing walking
  remembering, etc.)
• Use of assistive devices other accommodations

8
Additional Area of Agreement

• Development of governance plan for the group.
• Election of steering committee and secretariat
• Information available on website shortly
• Development of Workgroup process

9
Workgroups

• Workgroup 1 will generate a draft set of census
  questions related to the established purpose to
  be completed by September, 2004.
• Workgroup 2 will prepare a paper for the 4th
  meeting proposing methods for implementing the
  general disability measure in censuses.
• Workgroup 3 will prepare a paper proposing an
  approach for development of extended measurement
  sets related to the general disability measure

10
Next Steps

• Approve one or two sets of questions for use in
  Censuses
• Pretest one or two candidate general measures in
  several countries (particularly developing
  countries) and report results at the next meeting
• Develop a series of 3 regional meetings to help
  disseminate these materials widely.

11
Meeting Products and More Information

• Full report of last three meetings posted on the
  Washington City Group website along with
  presentations / papers from the meetings.
• http//www.cdc.gov/nchs/citygroup.htm
• Long Range Plan will be available soon on web
• Publication of key papers in a special issue of
  Research in Social Science and Disability due
  this Fall.