Are Survey Statisticians Prepared to Address Government Needs for Disability Statistics?

• Activity Number: 166
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 1, 2011 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Committee on Statistics and Disability
• Author(s): David W. Keer*+ and Jennifer Madans*+ and John Hough*+
• Companies: National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Keywords: Disability ; International ; human rights ; surveys

Abstract

On December 13, 2006, the first human rights treaty of the 21st century was adopted by the United Nations, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As of today, 146 countries have now signed the Convention. The purpose of the UN Convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. A strong Convention needs good statistics to monitor its course. How effective are survey statisticians going to be in meeting the needs of such a Convention? Article 31 of this Convention agrees that States Parties will undertake to collect and disseminate appropriate statistical information to enable governments to objectively formulate and monitor its implementation. Disability statistics produced by national statistical offices and researchers around the world have been notoriously plagued with problems of incomparability in definitions, concepts and standards. This session reviews recent achievements made by national statistical offices to improve disability statistics by setting the necessary standards and methods for their