The U.S. Census Bureau says it is not shifting forward with proposed modifications to how an annual survey produces estimates of how many individuals with disabilities live within the nation.
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The U.S. Census Bureau says it is not shifting forward with proposed modifications to how an annual survey produces estimates of how many individuals with disabilities live within the nation.
smartboy10/Getty Pictures
The U.S. Census Bureau is not shifting ahead with a controversial proposal that might have shrunk a key estimated price of incapacity in the US by about 40%, the bureau’s director mentioned Tuesday in a weblog submit.
The announcement comes simply over two weeks after the bureau mentioned the vast majority of the greater than 12,000 public feedback it obtained about proposed modifications to its annual American Neighborhood Survey cited considerations over altering the survey’s incapacity questions.
“Based mostly on that suggestions, we plan to retain the present ACS incapacity questions for assortment 12 months 2025,” Census Bureau Director Robert Santos mentioned in Tuesday’s weblog submit, including that the nation’s largest federal statistical company will hold working with the general public “to raised perceive information wants on incapacity and assess which, if any, revisions are wanted throughout the federal statistical system to raised deal with these wants.”
The American Neighborhood Survey presently asks contributors yes-or-no questions about whether or not they have “critical problem” with listening to, seeing, concentrating, strolling and different useful skills.
To align with worldwide requirements and produce extra detailed information about individuals’s disabilities, the bureau had proposed a brand new set of questions that might have requested individuals to price their stage of problem with sure actions.
Based mostly on these responses, the bureau was proposing that its principal estimates of incapacity would rely solely the individuals who report “Numerous problem” or “Can’t do in any respect,” leaving out those that reply with “Some problem.” That change, the bureau’s testing discovered, may have lowered the estimated share of the U.S. inhabitants with any incapacity by round 40% — from 13.9% of the nation to eight.1%.
That discovering, together with the proposal’s total strategy, sparked pushback from many incapacity advocates. Some have flagged that measuring incapacity based mostly on ranges of problem with actions is old-fashioned with what number of disabled individuals view their disabilities. One other main concern has been how altering this incapacity information may make it more durable to advocate for extra sources for disabled individuals.
Santos mentioned the bureau plans to carry a gathering this spring with incapacity neighborhood representatives, advocates and researchers to debate “information wants,” noting that the bureau embraces “steady enchancment.”
In an announcement, Bonnielin Swenor, Scott Landes and Jean Corridor — three of the main researchers towards the proposed query modifications — mentioned they hope the bureau will “absolutely interact the incapacity neighborhood” after dropping a proposal that many advocates felt was lacking enter from disabled individuals in the US.
“Whereas it is a win for our neighborhood, we should keep dedicated to the long-term aim of creating higher incapacity questions which are extra equitable and inclusive of our neighborhood,” Swenor, Landes and Corridor mentioned.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
