disability survey

disability survey, collection of information about disability by using survey methods. Although disability statistics can be produced from census data or administrative records, disability surveys are relatively inexpensive, unobtrusive, and accurate. The statistics gathered from disability surveys can be used to formulate and evaluate disability policies, such as increased accessibility in employment and transportation. Such statistics are also used by manufacturers and distributors of disability-related products and services (e.g., assistive technology, disability insurance plans) to inform their production, advertising, and sales projections and by scientific researchers to investigate the causes and consequences of disability. As with any survey, a disability survey has several established components: a sample of persons that accurately represents the population; data-collection procedures, including a standardized questionnaire; summary estimates of statistics for the population based on the information collected; and estimates of the sampling error of the statistics.

A major issue in disability surveys is measuring disability, which is an inherently complex concept that is difficult to define and measure. Disability surveys have good measures of many impairments and simple activities but less-well-defined measures of complex activities and participation.

Another problem is survey accessibility for respondents with disabilities. Conventional survey design assumes that sample persons are able-bodied or that an able-bodied proxy respondent can accurately answer questions about a disabled sample person. Those assumptions lead to practices that systematically exclude full participation in surveys by persons with disabilities, undermining the quality of the survey data. Survey methodologists have begun to recognize and address that problem.

New information technology has made it cost-effective to measure complex concepts (e.g., computerized adaptive testing) and to administer questionnaires in a variety of accessible formats (e.g., screen readers and voice recognition). On the other hand, some information technology has made it more difficult for surveys to yield complete interviews (e.g., telephone caller ID and e-mail filters).