What can the American Community Survey tell us about the population with disabilities

1
What can the American Community Survey tell us
about the population with disabilities?

• Robert Weathers
• Cornell University
• August 2004

2
Importance

• Decline in employment and economic well- being
  for the population with disabilities during the
  economic expansion of the 1990s.
• Some limitations with prior Census disability
  data collection efforts.
• Presidents New Freedom Initiative Promotes
  policies of inclusion of persons with
  disabilities.
• New Census data collection effort, the American
  Community Survey (ACS), can provide new
  information on progress towards improving
  employment and economic well-being.

3
Purpose of Presentation

• Describe how ACS measures disability.
• Describe population estimates and prevalence
  estimates based upon the ACS measures.
• Show differences across states and sub-groups in
  disability prevalence, employment and economic
  well-being.
• Discuss policy implications.

4
What is the ACS?

• The ACS is a new continuous data collection
  effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to produce
  annual estimates at the national, state and local
  level on the characteristics of the United States
  household population.
• Three main objectives of the ACS
• Provide federal, state and local governments with
  information for the administration and evaluation
  of government programs
• Replace the decennial census long-form and
• Provide timely information each year on
  demographic, housing, social and economic
  statistics that can be compared across states,
  communities, and population groups.

5
Conceptual Model of Disability

• Use WHO International Classification of
  Disability, Health and Functioning (ICF)
• Impairment,
• Activity Limitation, and
• Participation Restriction.
• Disability defined as an impairment, activity
  limitation, or participation restriction.
• Similar to ADA definition of disability.

6
How does ACS measure disability?

• Developed by inter-agency workgroup.
• Six questions
• Three related to impairments.
• One related to activity limitations.
• Two related to participation restrictions.
• Like the ICF, Census Bureau defines disability as
  an impairment, activity limitation or
  participation restriction.

7
ACS Sample

• In 2002, national sample of members from over
  500,000 households.
• Does not include those living in group
  quarters, which includes nursing homes,
  prisons, college dormitories, juvenile
  institutions, and emergency and transitional
  shelters for those experiencing homelessness.
• Plans to expand ACS in near future to include an
  annual sample of 3 million addresses, 2.5 of
  group home population, and 36,000 addresses from
  Puerto Rico.

8
Population with Disabilities, 2002
Source Calculations from 2002 ACS PUMS.
9
2002 Prevalence Rate, By Age
Source Calculations from 2002 ACS PUMS.
10
How to Measure Progress?

• Employment rate
• Reference week measure.
• Two other measures, some attachment over previous
  year, full-time year round during previous year
  in paper.
• Poverty Rate
• Based upon Federal Guidelines--OMB directive 14.
• Family as sharing unit.
• Household (HH) Income
• Related and unrelated household members as
  sharing unit.
• Two measures, total HH income and HH size
  adjusted income in paper.

11
2002 Employment Rates, 25-61
Source Calculations from the 2002 ACS PUMS.
12
2002 Poverty Rates, 25 - 61
Source Calculations from the 2002 ACS PUMS.
13
State Prevalence Rates, 25 - 61
Three lowest rate States, median State, and three
highest rate States.
Source Calculations from the 2002 ACS PUMS.
14
Disability Employment Rates, 25-61
Three lowest rate States, median State, and three
highest rate States.
Source Calculations from the 2002 ACS PUMS.
15
Disability Poverty Rates, 25-61
Three lowest States, median State, and three
highest states.
Source Calculations from the 2002 ACS PUMS.
16
Disability Employment, Ages 25-40
Source Calculations from 2002 ACS PUMS.
17
Disability Poverty Rates, 25-40
Source Calculations from 2002 ACS PUMS.
18
Summary

• ACS disability information is an improvement over
  prior Census data, but further research needed.
• Even with new improved measure of disability, ACS
  data shows significantly lower employment rates
  and higher poverty rates for the population with
  disabilities compared to the population without
  disabilities.
• Prevalence, employment and economic well being
  differ significantly across states. ACS provides
  a powerful tool to track these indicators across
  states and over time.
• In future, ACS will provide estimates at the
  Metropolitan Statistical Area and County level.

19
Policy Implications

• The ACS shows that the population with
  disabilities has a long way to go to reach the
  goals of inclusion in the New Freedom Initiative.
  
• The high poverty rates and household measures to
  not make adjustments for additional medical,
  personal assistance, and other needs of the
  population with disabilities. Do these
  indicators understate the income needs and
  poverty rates for the population? Need to
  conduct additional research on income needs and
  poverty rate measures of the population.
• The data shows an association between employment
  and economic well-being. Can policies that
  improve employment opportunities for persons with
  disabilities increase their economic well being?
• Some policies have begun to move in this
  direction, but we must continue to monitor
  progress.
• Cornell Employment and Disability Institute plans
  to utilize this data, in combination with other
  data sources, to monitor progress at the
  national, state and local level.

20
For further information

• See Cornell RRTC on Disability Demographics and
  Statistics
• Website www.disabilitystatistics.org
• E-mail disabilitystatistics_at_cornell.edu
• Bob Weathers
• E-mail rw56_at_cornell.edu