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Developing internationally comparable general disability measures: the Washington Group on disability statistics

Jennifer Madans, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), CDC
Barbara Altman, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The main purpose of the WG is the promotion and co-ordination of international co-operation in the area of health and disability statistics. The focus is on disability measures suitable for censuses and national surveys to provide basic information on disability throughout the world. More specifically, the WG aims to guide the development of a small set(s) of general disability measures, suitable for use in censuses, sample-based national surveys, or other statistical formats, for the primary purpose of informing policy on equalization of opportunities. The second priority of the Washington Group is to recommend one or more extended sets of survey items to measure disability, or principles for their design, to be used as components of population surveys or as supplements to specialty surveys. All disability measures recommended by the group will be accompanied by descriptions of their technical properties and methodological guidance will be given on implementation.

Presented in Session 148: The demography of disability: setting new directions