U.S. Census Bureau scraps proposed changes to disability questions

Related article How many in the U.S. are disabled? Proposed census changes would greatly decrease count BY Phie Jacobs The U.S. Census Bureau will not be changing the way it asks about disability on one of its nationwide surveys, the agency announced yesterday , after critics of a proposed revision said it would greatly underestimate the official number of people in the United States who are considered disabled. Bonnielin Swenor, director of Johns Hopkins University’s Disability Health Research Center, describes the Census Bureau’s reversal as a “welcome outcome” for the disability community. In the fall of 2023, Swenor served as the lead author of a public letter urging the agency not to move forward with changes to its annual American Community Survey (ACS), which collects data on demographic, social, and economic trends. The ACS uses a set of six yes-or-no questions—related to difficulty with hearing, vision, and other functions—to determine disability status. A respondent who answers “yes” to any of those questions is counted as disabled. In a Federal Register notice posted in October 2023 , the Census Bureau proposed replacing those questions with another set known as the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning (WG-SS). Developed by a United Nations-convened organizatio...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research