Show Me the Disability Data
CDCI Research, November 2022
An ongoing conversation about the questions we ask
Representation in data is a disability equity issue
Right now, we ask event attendees about “their relationship to disability”.
“What is your relationship to disability?”
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Youth or young adult with disability
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Adult with a disability
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Self-advocate
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Peer-advocate
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Parent or caregiver
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Ally
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Professional working with people with disabilities
But…12% of attendees choose not to answer. So how can we be more inclusive?
The Washington Group Questions
- Do you have difficulty seeing?
- Do you have difficulty hearing?
- Do you have difficulty walking or climbing steps?
- Do you have difficulty remembering or concentrating?
- Do you have difficulty with self-care, such as washing all over or dressing?
- Using your usual language, do you have difficulty communicating or being understood?
110,014 adults in Vermont have a disability. This is equal to 21% or 1 in 5 adults in Vermont.
Percentage of adults in Vermont with select functional disability types:
- 9% Cognition
- 8% Mobility
- 6% Independent Living
- 5% Hearing
- 3% Vision
- 2% Self-Care
Then we can better design for the accessibility needs of our participants.
Why is this research important?
Representation in data is a health equity issue.
This research describes what we’re trying to do at our organization to improve how much people with disabilities are represented in our data, and how well they can access our services. We want to start conversations with other people and organizations about how they look for disability data. A key part of equity is improving our understanding of the disability community, and improving how well we connect with that community.
Both the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2006) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development call for collecting and sharing disability facts in all data sets.
How we ask about disability experience matters.
We chose to look at The Washington Group Questions because those questions were developed specifically to help find out more about disability in data sets. These questions might be really useful for designing more accessible trainings, events, and resources.
Author
- Adrienne Miao, PhD. University of North Carolina.
Suggested Citation
Miao, A. F. “Show Me the Disability Data! An ongoing conversation about the questions we ask.”Poster presentation at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities 2022 Conference. Washington, DC, USA.