UN Washington Group Report and Next Steps

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UN Washington Group Report and Next Steps

• Barbara Altman
• Daniel Mont
• Kampala, Uganda
• October 2006

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Presentation Outline

• Need for Recommendations
• Proposal For Report
• Next Steps

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Need for Recommendations

• UN Commission Meeting (March 2007)
• Discussion Paper
• Continued existence
• Upcoming Censuses
• Disability questions will be included
• Crucial time to offer guidance
• Need to do something now. Perfection
  shouldnt be the enemy of the good.

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Proposal for Report

• What we agree on
• Purpose for census is equalization of
  opportunities
• Questions shouldnt contain the word disability
• Functional approach based on ICF
• Scaled Responses
• Four core domains are
• Seeing
• Hearing
• Walking
• Cognition

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Why those four domains?

• Basic activity level links up with purpose
• Captures large proportion of target population
• Easier to capture
• Cultural comparability is easier
• Mode portability (mail, phone, face to face)

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Suggestions for Additional Domains

• Self-care
• Policy making issue
• Identifies most vulnerable
• Communication
• Link to participation
• Easier to measure than other important domains

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What about other domains?

• For example, psychological, learning, upper body,
  etc.
• Recognize their importance
• Harder to target on census
• Some will be picked up by other domains
• (will re-visit in Next Steps section)

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Question Wording

• UN Commission does not recommend specific wording
• We suggest an appendix that
• Lists our questions
• Provides rationale for wording
• Reports on test results
• Appear to identify population relative to domains
• Numbers and distributions make sense
• No notable cultural differences
• Report provides basic framework for disability
  questions
• Washington Group endorses use of Qs as tested

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Policymaker Needs

• Recognize functional questions do not neatly line
  up with categories policymakers some times need
• Explain how combinations of questions and various
  thresholds can be used to approximate needed
  categories
• Provide examples of how this can be done

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Next Steps

• Prior to report, resolve glasses/hearing aid
  clause issue
• Further analysis to
• better understand test results
• work with UNESCAP to understand discrepancies and
  identify commonalities
• Re-visit communication question
• Technical assistance to countries
• Special populations (e.g., children)
• Other methodological concerns (e.g., sampling)

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Publication of Test Results

• Description of process
• Results of testing
• Comparisons with other work
• Sample experiences of countries
• Limitations of census questions
• Identify issues for further research

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On to Dublin!