International Measurement of Disability: Purpose, Method and Application

· Social Indicators Research Series Book 61 · Springer
Ebook
335
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About this ebook

This volume provides an informed review of the Washington Group accomplishments in the provision of international data and statistics on disability within the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It includes a description of the development and testing of a short set of questions for Censuses, now used in approximately 29 countries; the experiences of several countries on the use of the Washington Group questions and how this has impacted on national agendas in the area of disability; the development and testing of an extended set of questions for use in national surveys other than censuses; the challenges of translation and the importance of generating comparable question sets in different languages and within different cultures; the examination of cognitive testing techniques in a variety of countries; and the results of the first round of censuses in 2010 in countries using the six question set. Part of the current work of the Washington Group on development of question modules on a broad range of functioning areas, child disability and functioning, and the environmental contexts of participation are also included. The volume concludes with a thoughtful contribution, authored by a former member of the UN and an internationally known disability advocate, addressing what the development of cross-nationally comparable data can mean for the improvement of circumstances for all persons with disabilities.

About the author

Barbara M. Altman is a sociologist with a PhD from the University of Maryland. Retired from the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, where she served as Special Assistant on Disability Statistics to the office of the Director, she also worked at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Prior to her work in the government, she served as Undergraduate Coordinator in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland. She currently serves as a consultant on disability statistics issues. She played a key role in the organization and development of the work of the Washington Group, an international group working under the auspices of the United Nations, to develop culturally compatible measures of disability for international use and still consults on that activity. Her disability research interests focus primarily on disability definition and measurement, financing and utilization of health care services by persons with disabilities, and disability among minority groups, particularly Native Americans. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on disability topics including the recent Disability and Health in the United States Chartbook, and currently is co-editor of the series Research in Social Science and Disability.

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