According to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities all people, regardless of disability status, have the same rights to be full member of society. This notion is embodied in the “Leave No One Behind” Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To make this goal a reality, it is important to develop good statistics on disability. First, to uncover the scope and nature of exclusion. That is to document the prevalence of disability and its pattern both geographically and also by various characteristics, such as age, gender or ethnicity. Also, to document gaps in outcomes, such as education, employment, the experience of violence, HIV status, etc. – basically any outcome, including the SDG indicators. This helps in motivating and planning policies to promote inclusion. Secondly, to monitor and evaluate the implementation and impact of those policies. To do this we need a reliable methodology for identifying people with disabilities in surveys and censuses. To benchmark progress globally, for example in disaggregating SDG indicators by disability status, we need this method to yield internationally comparable results.
Fortunately, such a methodology has been developed and tested by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG). The WG is a United Nations Statistics Commission City Group formed of representatives from national statistical offices working on developing methods to better improve statistics on persons with disabilities globally, with input from various international agencies and experts. These include UN agencies, bilateral aid agencies, NGOs, Disabled People Organizations and researchers. Simply by adding the WG questions to existing data instruments – censuses, labour force surveys, income and expenditure surveys, etc. – all indicators currently being produced by a country can be disaggregated by disability status without any additional surveys or statistical infrastructure.
The WG methodology has been adopted, recommended and used by a growing number of countries, agencies and organizations. It has been recommended by the UN Statistical Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Europe Council for Europe, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, a disability data expert group under the auspices of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the International Disability Alliance and the World Bank. The international aid agencies of the UK (DFID) and Australia (DFAT) have adopted the WG questions for reporting on their activities. Recently, use of the WG questions was included in the commitments from the World Disability Summit.
The WG has created several tools. The most famous is a set of six questions (known as the short set) that can easily be included in data instruments to identify people age five and above with disabilities. The approach -- based on the approach to disability taken in WHO’s International Classification of Functioning and the bio-psychosocial model of disability -- is designed to identify (in a census or survey format) people at greater risk than the general population for participation restrictions due to the presence of difficulties in six core functional domains, if appropriate accommodations are not made. Those functional domains are seeing, hearing, mobility, cognition, communication and self-care.
These questions, and detailed documentation on how to use them can be found in the Washington Group’s website. You can also find guidance on translation, training, and implementation – including an extensive FAQ section and blog series that provides answers to the most common concerns people have, as well as examples of how the questions have been used.
However, the WG Short Set has some limitations. It can’t be used for children under age five, and it tends to under-identify children with developmental disabilities. It also asks no questions on psychosocial disabilities, or questions dealing with assistive devices. For that reason, the WG developed additional tools. The WG Extended Set addresses the issue of psychosocial disabilities and also assistive devices as well as providing more detailed information on functioning. (The extended set contains 35 questions. The WG Short Set Enhanced Set consists of 12 questions and deals with psychosocial issues). Also, the WG in cooperation with UNICEF developed a Child Functioning Module (CFM) that can be used for children aged 2-17 that identifies more children with disabilities. It has been included in UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Detailed information on these data sets can also be found on the WG website. UNICEF’s website has a users’ module for the CFM.
These questions can be used to identify people with disabilities to monitor prevalence and to disaggregate indicators by disability status, so we can see if people with disabilities are being left behind in development. What they can’t do is tell us WHY they are being left behind. What are the barriers that cause their exclusion?
To work on these issues the WG and UNICEF developed an education module that can be used to examine the barriers to education. The WG and ILO are also working on a similar module that can be used to look at employment in labor force surveys.
In short, a lot of work has been done to create tools to collect international comparable, high quality information on people with disabilities. These tools have been both cognitively tested and field tested in low, middle and high income countries in every region. So, the methodology exists. And the WG is also standing by to offer technical assistance, through its website, through many regional trainings, and through one-on-one consultations with any country or agency wanting to use them.
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