Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to "Disability Statistics: What do they tell us?" At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require audio assistance during the conference, please press Star then Zero to reach an operator. I would now like to turn the call over to Robin Jones.
Good morning or good afternoon depending on where you are. And my name is Robin Jones and I am the director of the DBTAC-Great Lakes ADA Center. I want to welcome you to the ADA Audio Conference series. This series is brought to you by the ADA National Network which is comprised of the ten regional ADA centers. This is a monthly program that is offered on the third Tuesday of every month covering a variety of different topics. And as you heard, today''s topic is "Disability Statistics: What do they tell us?" Before I introduce our speaker today, let me just go over a few of our logistics. One, I just want to remind people that people are connected using a variety of different technologies today. We have individuals who are using the telephone; we have individuals connected through streaming audio on the internet; and we also have individuals using real-time captioning. This session is being recorded, and a transcript, as well as a recording of the session, will be posted in the archive section of our website at www.ada-audio.org within ten business days following the end of this session. The delay is to make sure that we have a well-edited transcript. Along with the transcript and the recording, will also be a copy of the handout materials which, hopefully, all of you have already received and downloaded from the website and are able to follow along with our presenter today, as he will be letting you know which slide we are talking about at any time. As I said, this session is 1 of 12, and I will be reminding you of our next month''s session at the end of the call. But we hope that you''ll be joining us again next month where we''ll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ADA. So without further ado, I''m going to go ahead, and I will introduce our speaker today. Our speaker is Dr. Andrew Houtenville. He is Associate Professor of Economics and Research and the director of the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire. He is extensively involved in disability statistics and employment policy research. He is the co-principal investigator of the Hunter College Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, also in short known as the StatsRRTC. He has published widely in the area of disability statistics and the economic status of people with disabilities. Andrew received his PhD in economics from the University of New Hampshire, where he is currently employed, in 1977; and was a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral Fellow at Syracuse University ''98 through ''99. He was also a senior research associate at Cornell University and New Editions Consulting in McLean, Virginia. So I think you -- many of you may remember Andrew because he has presented in this series in the past on statistics-related issues, so he may be a familiar name to you. His bio is also on our website, so if you did not catch everything I said today, you can refer back to that website for the reading of that. And without further ado, I will go ahead and turn over the microphone to Andrew. Andrew, go ahead. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: All right. Thank you, Robin. Can everybody -- can I be heard okay, as far as you know, Robin?
Yes. You''re very fine, yes. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to present. As Robin mentioned, this is work that I''m doing under the Hunter College Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics, the acronym is the StatsRRTC. And it''s funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, NIDRR, out of the U.S. Department of Education; and also it''s done through my collaboration with Hunter College. All right so. Disability Statistics -- Disability Statistics: What do they tell us? So let''s go to Slide 2. Slide 2 says, "Quick Answers." The promotional that was sent out to everyone on -- electronically and over the Web, had some great questions, and to be sure I get to them, I''m actually going to go to them first, and let me answer them rather quickly first, and then I''ll go back to them over the course of my talk. I, you know, hesitate to have such great questions out there and then develop a presentation and not get to them. So let me go through them -- through each of them one by one. So one of the questions raised in the -- in the promotional materials was: Where do the 54 million Americans living with a disability number come from? The short answer is it comes from the Census Bureau. The slide has the information about this source. It actually dates back to -- the publication was 1997, the data was 1994, ''95, and it was Census Bureau estimate of the population with disabilities. It used the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the SIPP, as the main survey to estimate the number. And it was based on self-responses and sometimes proxy responses. It uses a very broad definition of disability. One of the things that you always have to keep in mind when you -- when you look at statistics with disabilities -- about the population with disabilities -- statistics with disabilities -- well, there are statistics with disabilities but nevertheless, so when you look at statistics about the population with disabilities, it''s always important to keep in mind what the original source is, whether it''s a survey, or maybe administrative or program records. A lot of times it also depends -- the question you want to ask is, how does the survey or the program identify the population with disabilities, or their program participants with disabilities? It''s -- there''s no uniform measure. There are millions of -- no that''s -- there are -- there are around 60 or so definitions of disability used by the federal government of the United States so one also important thing to note about the SIPP is that it does not include persons living in institutions. In some work I''ve done with a colleague, Bill Erickson, we looked at estimates of the population with disabilities that live in institutions, and -- and it roughly reaches around two million. It depends -- you know, a lot of times what we did look at were institutions that had -- that were related to disability, and then we also want to include people with disabilities that live in non-disability-related institutions. So one thing to keep in mind about the 54 million number is that it''s old, it dates back to the early ''90s, and that it does not include the population with disabilities that are living in institutions -- roughly two million -- you can tack on two million as a rough guess of the population living in institutions. There is a more recent estimate, 54.4 million that was estimated by the Census Bureau, again using the SIPP, in 2005. We spent a couple years below 54 million, which kind of made people scratch their heads because you would think that with the aging of the population, in general, with the United States, with the baby boom generation advancing, and with the relationship between age and disability, that we would have seen a rise in the population with disabilities over the ''90s and into the 2000s; however, there were some changes in the way the survey was -- was conducted, the way the estimates were derived, and so we spent time under 54 million. And as of 2005, we''re back up to 54.4 million. And again, the presentation slides provide the -- the website where you can download that -- that report that summarizes the estimate. So let''s go to the next slide. Another question: Why are there different numbers out there about the size of the population disabilities? Well, I kind of hint to that earlier. Surveys -- just like the federal programs and state programs -- surveys done by the Census Bureau or the Department of Education or the -- the CDC all use a variety of questions to identify the population with disabilities. There are a new set of six questions that are used by several sources that make comparisons pretty -- more straightforward, I would say, but we''re not going to get identical population size estimates. The SIPP uses something like 68 or so questions to identify the population with disabilities. The American Community Survey, which was the survey that took the place of the Census long form. The American Community Survey uses only six questions to identify the population with disabilities, so it''s going to pick up fewer people and may miss portions of the population that are not identified in those six questions. So the short answer is different surveys, different questions. Even when you have very similar questions, you end up, you know, if it''s a health survey, you may have a larger population; if it''s an economic survey, you may have a smaller population because these are all self-reports. All right question 3. So next slide, slide No. 5: Why are there different numbers out there about the unemployment rate of people with disabilities? Well, very similar answer. Since October 2008, we actually have the official Bureau of Labor Statistics -- so the U.S. government official unemployment rate for the population with disabilities by the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- in May of 2010, it was 14.7%. And I provide the URL for the Web address for where you can find that -- that estimate. This -- those estimates and now we have monthly statistics for the population with disabilities, so it''s a real advancement in federal statistics for population with disabilities, and it''s been several -- many years, people have been working pretty hard to get those into the main Census Bureau -- Bureau of Labor Statistics survey There is something to note that this 17.4 -- 17 -- I''m sorry -- 14.7% unemployment rate is quite different than the 70 to 60% number that you hear cited quite often in the disability literature. The -- that 60 to 70% number goes back, you know, I did a Web search to try to find the original source -- dates at least back to 1988 or so. The quick answer is that some people will subtract the employment rate, which typically is around 30 to 40%, from 100%. So subtract 30% from 100% and you get these -- the unemployment rate. Well, it''s not quite that easy. The employment rate, em with an "e," the employment rate has a different denominator than the unemployment rate. The employment rate has everybody in the denominator, so it''s the percentage of all people that are working; whereas the unemployment rate is the percentage of people that are not working as a percentage of the labor force, and the labor force only includes people who are working or actively looking for work, and so it''s that "actively looking for work" that causes the issue. The unemployment rate is typically designed to measure the tightness of the labor market, and so it only looks at people actively looking for work, and so it has the problem -- the unemployment rate has the problem that if people stop looking for work, they end up going out of the numerator, then the denominator, then you can actually see rises -- I''m sorry -- declines, falling unemployment rates in the United States -- whether it''s a population with disabilities or not -- you can see falling unemployment rates if people are leaving the labor market, if people are giving up actively searching for work. And that has happened over the course of the -- the monthly changes in the economy over the years. I typically stick with employment rates or labor force participation rates, so the percentage of people who are in the labor force at -- with the denominator all people because, you know, the population with disabilities may be on disability programs, social security supplemental income, and social security disability insurance, so, you know, you don''t want to necessarily ignore those individuals. And the unemployment rate, you know, like I said, only includes people who are actively looking for work or working so. Another source of the 70% unemployment rate, there has been work that''s -- that looks at the population with disabilities that are not working so, and then it says, "Okay, of the people not working, how many want to go back to work?" And that number roughly is typically around 70%. And some people convert that into an unemployment rate, but it''s not a fair comparison, because that''s not what the unemployment rate is about. It''s not about wanting to go back to work. It''s about whether you''re actively looking for work. Okay next slide. Quick answer No. 4: What can we expect to learn about disability from the 2010 Census? Well, probably very little. The Census short form -- which we all filled out hopefully -- did not include disability-related questions. The long form, which started in 1970 Census through the 2000 Census, the long form has been replaced by the annual American Community Survey. The American Community Survey is now the major source for population statistics, and we feel kind of lucky about having fixed questions about disability. Space on this survey is very -- it''s at a high premium, and we have about an inch and a half of space -- two and a half inches of space dedicated to disabilities so surprisingly that''s actually quite a bit of space on a major federal survey. Okay so one thing we might also think about with the 2010 Census is you''ll start hearing probably some stories about census workers going out to households and whether those census workers are trained in alternative communication, whether they''re trained to approach a house where the person with, perhaps, communication difficulties is -- is -- well, it''s, I think, it''s still up for questioning. All right, Question No. 5. Quick Answer No. 5, Slide No. 7: So where can I get more information about disability statistics than the underlying sources? My not-so-biased answer is the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at Hunter College, the StatsRRTC. We''re funded by NIDRR, and we have statistics that we compile in a document called the "Annual Disability" -- "Annual Compendium of Disability Statistics," and I''ll be talking quite a bit about that -- that effort in my remaining parts of my talk. One thing that you should know is that, you know, with -- many of you may be familiar with NIDRR, it''s the founder of the -- of the Disability Business and Technical Assistance Centers, the ADA Centers, and the RRTC, the Research and Training Centers, have both a research component and training and outreach component; and under the Hunter Statistic Center, we''re developing this annual Disability Statistics Compendium as a way to aggregate statistics together and reach out to the community and provide a resource. We have a lot of facility with the underlying sources that we use for our research, and we take that underlying capacity with the data sources and convert it into more general, public-oriented documents. So let''s go to the next slide. So Slide No. 8: The Purpose of the presentation today. So I''ve answered the questions that were in the promotional, and I''ll be glad to answer more questions after I''m done talking, and, hopefully, I can answer your questions. So the purpose of this presentation, as described on Slide 8, is to describe the purpose of the annual Compendium Disability Statistics, highlight some of the statistical patterns found in the compendium, discuss the potential uses of the compendium, further expansions of the compendium, and accessing the compendium, and also technical assistance from the Center. A lot of times people get frustrated when they look at -- look for data on the web or from various sources, and another thing that we can offer at the Hunter Statistic Center is access to a toll-free number where you can give us a call and ask us specific questions. I''ll give you that number at the end of the presentation. So next slide No. 9: Purpose of the compendium. So I''ve talked about this a little bit already. The purpose is to provide the disability community with a comprehensive set of statistics, ready access up-to-date, a variety of topics and sources, the population, you know, survey-related statistics, and also administrative statistics from the various programs around the country that provide services to the population with disabilities. It''s also, in some sense, a guide to existing data sources and statistics, so when you look at the compendium and you -- you''ll see a set of tables, and these tables will have the original source located underneath them. And you can, you know, it''s kind of guide so you can find a statistic and then maybe you can dig down. The compendium doesn''t have all statistics from a specific source, just the high level ones and you can potentially drill down further by going to the original source. In this sense, we''re modeled after the U.S. Statistical Abstract put out by the Department of Commerce -- the U.S. Department of Commerce. I don''t know if people are familiar with the U.S. Statistical Abstract, but it''s about -- it''s a big volume. It''s probably -- like, it sits behind the reference librarian at the library, and it''s probably around, you know, two to three inches thick -- two and a half inches thick. It''s about the size of the Guinness World Book of Records, and it''s a great read, actually. You can thumb through it. It''s available on the Web in relatively accessible form, and it has statistics on everything you''d ever want to know. And so what we''ve done is we''ve said, okay, disability actually doesn''t appear in the U.S. Statistical Abstract. I don''t -- the last I look, there were no tables identify -- addressing the population with disabilities. So what we''re doing, in some sense, is to -- to supplement for the lack of coverage by the -- by the U.S. Statistical Abstract. Also the U.S. Statistical Abstract has been around for 30, 40, 50 years, and following its style guide is -- kind of helps us with a tried and true way of providing statistics so. Let''s go to the next slide, Slide No. 10. So basically the compendium is a massive set of tables. It''s based on existing publications. So it was real important -- there are kind of a couple of ways we could have done it. One way is to go to the published documents themselves. Sometimes there are unpublished documents from the federal government. There are a lot that are being created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that are not already -- not yet posted to the Web. And then there are -- we could have -- we could have produced statistics based on the published used files of the raw data that are provided by the Census Bureau and other agencies, but -- but that -- that''s a considerable amount of effort. Over the years we -- I was involved in the Cornell effort to provide statistics through -- through a document called the "Status Report," which is still a great document, but the Census Bureau and BLS -- Bureau of Labor Statistics -- the CDC, are all doing a much better job providing statistics. There''s obviously room for improvement, but they''re doing a much better job covering statistics. It''s just difficult because disability, as with disability services and disability legal issues, they''re all around the map. There''s no one agency that collects statistics on the population with disabilities. Another thing is this compendium is acts as a reference to the original sources by providing links. You can also access technical assistance via a toll-free number which appears at the bottom of every page of the compendium. A particular focus of this on -- of this year''s -- the first draft -- the first version of the -- the compendium is to focus on state levels statistics. We get lots of calls for state level statistics. In future years, we''ll probably add to the -- add to the -- the compendium by adding time trends [Inaudible] available, and also statistics on specific types of disability. That''s probably the biggest request that we get is for very specific kinds of disabilities. I can talk about potential sources for that if people are interested. There''s an issue with the 2008 American Community Survey. The -- the survey is a prime source for -- the American Community Survey. The data came out a little later, and so we went with the 2007 American Community Survey. We also provided, at the last minute, some tables from the 2008 American Community Survey. There''s an issue where you can''t really compare changes over time because the American Community Survey just revised their -- their -- their survey instrument for the American Community Survey by splitting hearing and vision impairment into two separate questions and also dropping a work activity limitation question. So you really can''t compare 2007 to 2008 data in the American Community Survey in general, shifts over time are always tricky with surveys and other sources because sometimes it''s not a real change, it''s a change that''s due to the way the data was collected, not necessarily the phenomena that''s out there. Why don''t we go to the next slide, Slide No. 11. So topics covered under -- under the -- the compendium. And I hope those who got the slides in advance were able to go to the compendium website, it''s a bit slow because it''s a pretty big document; there''s an HTML version, as well as the PDF version. The topics covered are considerable. So there''s population size; disability prevalence statistics; employment, poverty, and earnings from work statistics; education; self reported health and health behaviors, so risky behaviors like smoking can affect that; other health statistics, like health insurance access. We have some programs statistics from the Social Security Administration, so supplemental security income, recipients, social security disability insurance recipients. We have some special education statistics from the Office of Special Education programs and the U.S. Department of Education. We also have vocational revocation statistics from -- also from the U.S. Department of Education, from Rehabilitation Service Administration. We also have some monthly statistics. So the new statistics that come out of the -- the American Survey, the current population survey the official BLS Statistics Monthly. And we also have some monthly statistics from the Social Security Administration. These are particularly timely in paying attention, you know, you can get updates from the original sources. But over the last months of the recession, there''s been a massive increase in applications of social security and disability benefits so. Let''s go to the next slide. So let''s talk a little bit about the statistics that come with the compendium. So population size and disability prevalence the population living in the community, that''s a different way of saying, people who are not living in institutions. Table 86, so there are roughly three million people in the United States -- residential population in the United States in 2008. About 36.1 million of those reported disability based on the sequence of six questions. 12 point -- so that''s about 12.1% of the population with disabilities. A lot of times you''ll hear one in five percent. That is -- is again, based on the survey of income participation -- income and program participation, that''s the 54 million source which gets prevalence rates up to about 20%. You know, a lot of times, depending on how you''re using statistics, you''ll have to go to different sources, and the compendium is designed kind of -- will help you find different statistics on the population with disabilities. One of the great benefits of the American Community Survey is that it has really large sample sizes, you know, it''s replacing the Census long form, and you can get really accurate state level estimates because there are large samples. So Utah had the lowest prevalence rate in 2008 of 8.9%, while West Virginia had 19.0% all right. And those are pretty traditional trends and are consistent across different disability sources. Tables 91 through 96 provide the working-age population, 18 to 64, living in the community, and so we start looking at disability type in the compendium, and these are all statistics that are produced by the Census Bureau. Roughly speaking, those with what the Census Bureau calls "ambulatory difficulties" are the largest population, about 50 -- 50.7% of the population with disabilities. Those with "independent living difficulties," so this is a new term for what had been called, "going outside the home" disability -- going outside home alone to do errands, like going to the doctor or shopping. That''s a large fraction of the population 34.4%. "Cognitive difficulty," which is the Census Bureau''s term for -- for emotional and physical and mental conditions that limit your ability to remember -- learn, remember, and make decisions -- that''s 50.5%. One thing you should know is that if you look at the table that''s in the -- on Slide 15, is that it doesn''t come to 100% because individuals can report more than one of these disabilities. All right so this was the working-age population. The next slide, Slide 16 we look at the -- continue to look at the work limitation -- I''m sorry -- the working-age population, 18 to 64, living in the community, and here''s where we start getting employment rates. So the percentage employed out of all individuals -- working-age individuals. So the employment rate in 2008 was 39.1% for people with disabilities as defined by the American Community Survey questions, compared to 77.7% of the population without disabilities. This is a pretty consistent gap of employment that''s seen across all kinds of data sources. Regardless of how you measure employment, regardless of how you measure disability, you typically get a substantial gap between the population without disabilities. This gap varies considerably across the states, and the compendium has a lot of statistics on state comparisons, as well as comparison across disability type. Let''s go to the next slide. So one of the things that -- that this -- using more of an abstract, you know, taking abstracts -- extracting stuff from federal sources is it allows us to fairly quickly grab a bunch of statistics in a variety of different topics. NIDRR sits within the Office of Special Education -- Special Education and Rehabilitation at the Department of Ed and Vocational Rehabilitation as a large focus of the Hunter Statistics Center. The -- the compendium currently has four tables dedicated to state vocation rehabilitation programs, which in this federal fiscal year 2007, had about 600,000 individuals apply for services, closing about 340 -- 341,000 cases in the that year. And about 60% of those closures were closures into employment. All right. We''re working with the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation programs, CSAVR, to expand the set. Also, in general, if you -- if you know of some statistics that are available that you think would be good, or you''d like to see something different in the compendium, either differently cast or any -- in any way, any of your recommendations are more than welcome. You can reach me by e-mail. That''s probably the easiest way to reach me, and I''ll provide my e-mail at the end. So let''s go to Slide 18 towards the end what -- when we''re getting ready to close out our take of data to build the compendium, because we''re pushing up against the publication deadline. You know, we committed to roll it out in October every year, and we put in some statistics on the population with disabilities some overtime statistics and these were the most recent as of going to the publication date for the compendium. So Table 84 of the compendium looks at the monthly unemployment rate of civilians ages 16 to 64 by disability status. And so what you see is trends in the employment rate over time differing quite a bit. I have extended -- I have extended that trend. There was a -- for the purposes of this presentation, I actually threw in a few extra months. There was a big spike -- a big divergence. If you look at the slide, there''s a big divergence in the summer of 2009, and that divergence seems to have closed. That was a really bad summer for the entire economy but appears that the population with disabilities actually took the brunt of that summer''s issues. Okay. So table -- that''s Table 84. You can actually go to the original source and see even more recent statistics. Typically, the unemployment rate statistics are released the first Friday of every month so. Just so you know. If we go to Slide No. 19, Table 85, the monthly number of -- of social security statistics, we provide a pretty rugged table in the -- a pretty un-user-friendly table in the compendium, you know, it''s a -- they are what they are. They''re statistic tables. Here I provide a graph that shows the monthly number of applications for Social Security Disability Insurance from 2000 to December 2009, the end of last year, and what you see, there''s a kind of trend line I snapped on for presentation purposes. You actually see a substantial rise with the recession, and social security is rushing to meet the -- the request for the claims of disability and get applications done in a timely manner. So Table 85. Let''s go to the next slide. So in the future what I hope to do -- and your input is -- would be great -- is we have money to do four more compendiums, given the current grant cycle, and we will try to improve the compendium over the years. We hope to add more time trend statistics. This may require us estimating our own and not necessarily citing a government publication because time trends can be quite difficult because the source -- the way source collects information changes sometimes. We have to add additional sources; for example, EEOC statistics on ADA-related charges, non-disability programs also that serve the population with disabilities would like to add some more program statistics on that. A focus perhaps for next year, because it''s so common, is to provide statistics by type of disability. We may not be able to give a state-to-state comparison, which was the focus of the first building block of the compendium, but there''s always a high need for disability-specific statistics. I''d also like to include in some years, some -- some statistics on cost statistics. We have a group led by Mathematical Policy Research that are looking into how to consistently collect from government sources information about the cost of government programs related to disability. The -- another thing I''d love to do is to actually have kind of a side-by-side comparison, not necessarily comparison, but a side-by-side source of information that kind of describes the current policies and programs associated with the statistics, and how these stat -- how these policies and programs change from year to year because, you know, there''s sometimes some pretty significant changes in federal programs, and there''s not a sense that we have a good documentation for how they occur. Okay. So let me give you guys a pop quiz. I think -- no - I didn''t provide the answers to those. Good. So when looking at disability statistics, what is the -- what is probably the most important question to ask about how that statistics was computed? And so I''ll wait until we go for comments before I hear answers. Let''s go to Slide 22. So Slide 22: Accessing the Compendium. So disabilitystatisticscompendium.org is the website. There''s an accessible PDF and an accessible HTML versions. Print limiteds are -- are still available, at least this year. We hope to print more and more over the years. We find it that people still feel that paper is an important way of accessing information. That also is just, it''s always handy to have it nearby, you don''t always have Web access. There''s also a toll-free technical assistance line, and if you''re interested in getting a paper version of the compendium, you can call (866) 538-9521. And I''ll repeat that, (866) 538-9521. And we''re burning through our copies of the compendium pretty quickly this year. We hope to print up more next year for the second annual release of the Disability Statistics Compendium. Let me go to my contact information on page 523. So again, I''m at the University of New Hampshire. I''m at the Institute on Disability, which is the university''s Center of Excellence on Disability. My phone number is on the slide, and probably the best way to get a hold of me is to e-mail me at Andrew.houtenville@unh.edu. What don''t I now turn it over to you, Robin, and go for questions. That was about 40 or 35 minutes, just like I hoped it would be.
Great. Thank you, Andrew. And I think you gave people a lot of information, and I have this vision of people sitting in the room and kind of their heads spinning. You know, when you talk about the [inaudible] some, for many they''re not familiar with resources, or haven''t worked with these resources, and have always wondered where to get this information so why don''t we go ahead and give instructions to participants about how they can ask a question, and then we''ll start to field various questions. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question at this time, please press the Star key and then the 1 key on your touchtone telephone. If your question has been answered, or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the Pound key. Again, if you have a question, please press Star 1 now. The first question comes from Debbie Jackson.
Good morning or good afternoon. We''re out in Hawaii, so forgive me. [ Laughter ] I''m looking at Slide 19 which is Applications to SSDI, and it trends upward over the decade or so there. Any further analysis or explanation as to why you think there''s that consistent smooth trend? Is it perhaps in part due to the aging of the population, or what might be the variables there? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. So let me just talk a few minutes about it. So what you can see on Slide 19 is kind of a trend line that kind of rises, then levels off, and then rises again, and you see a kind of saw tooth around is which the monthly numbers is jumping up and down. The -- certainly we would expect -- I wouldn''t say -- I wouldn''t go that I could explain exactly why this trend looks the way it does. I think you''re onto something when you raise the issue of the aging of the population, the aging of the baby boom in particular, that as it moves towards -- - you know, so DI -- this is for DI, which ends at 64, so as the baby boom reached the -- their ''50s and early ''60s, DI is a potential way, if they''ve been in a job or if there''s a late onset of a disability, to get income supports. And so I would say that that would be an interesting consideration. I think probably the biggest thing to consider is that, you know, this is a fairly stable trend between 2004 and 2008. And I think it''s really the recession that''s driving a lot of this. I''d like to look before 2002. The previous recession was in 2000 and 2001, it was much more mild, but certainly you would expect a rise as people are -- with disabilities -- are losing their jobs and losing the potentially the accommodations and the arrangements that they had going into it, that there may not be jobs very similar available to them at all, and DI is designed for just that kind of situation so.
Okay. Thank you. Can I ask one more question while I have you? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yup.
Go ahead.
All right. Looking at trends again, I''m wondering if there''s any kind of good statistical database that looks at disability statistics, like from birth, to be able to figure out how many people are actually born or medically diagnosed with something very early on versus people that are picking up a disability due to injury or illness throughout life. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: That''s a great question, and it''s a great missing -- it''s an enormous hole in the ability to produce disability statistics using the current sources. There is no good source on the onset of disability and on -- collecting onset information has a lot of challenges. For instance, you know, disabilities can progress very mildly over time. There can be more than one disability. A person may have more than one disability, so it quickly stacks up questions in these very parsimonious surveys. And we haven''t had a survey that was dedicated to disabilities since the early 1990s with the National Health Interview Survey on Disability in 1994, ''95. So onset information, as far as I know, it doesn''t exist in a comprehensive way, and we would expect quite different trends in statistics and also service utilization from people with early onset versus people with late onset. So --
Thank you. >> Dr. Andrew Houtenville: -- sorry to disappoint you, but I think there are some opportunities coming up where both the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor may be looking at onset questions.
Could we ask one more question here? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Sure.
Oh, okay, also in Hawaii. Francie White. Is there any nationwide data collected on individuals who have a mobility limitation who have parking placards? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Good question. No. [Laughter]
Okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: So there''s no --
You don''t think DOT has any intent under the Uniform, oh, Handicap Parking Act, whatever it''s formally called, to gather that information? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: You know, I don''t know about -- when you talk to federal data -- data agencies, so Census Bureau or someone like the Department of Transportation that have specific charges to collecting information, they''ll stick very closely to legislative intent. And if the legislative intent did not request the collection of such statistics, it''s very unlikely that a program or an initiative would have the -- the -- would allow for the dedication of resources to the collection of statistics in such a manner. You know, they''ll -- they actually go through legislative intent analysis before they do some big surveys, and if there''s not legislative intent there, it typically doesn''t happen. The other thing to know is that, you know, I probably the only thing that I would ever -- there was a Department of Labor -- a Department of Transportation survey about three years ago maybe -- maybe four now -- that was specific to transportation issues. Whether parking placards was on there, I kind of doubt it, but it certainly might be worth a look. The -- then, you know, that was a national survey.
If we e-mail you, do you think you could send us a contact or link for that? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Sure.
Okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Sure.
And I think the other challenge with that, Andrew, just to jump in with the parking, even though that -- the Uniformity Act is really to look at the, you know, ability for one state to another to have like a reciprocity process and everything, there''s still a lot of individuality at the state-by-state level as to whether or not they even differentiate how they issue their placards and what data they keep about the disability itself, because the definitions of eligibility will be different from different states. Some states have tiered levels of parking placards and things of that nature, so I think there is probably some challenges to saying apples and apples versus apples and oranges in the data collection too. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: You know, that''s typically true for -- for many things. Like workers compensations statistics are a nightmare because it''s -- every state, you know, there''s no uniformity, there''s a lot of variation in how workers compensation policy is implemented from state to state, and as a result, the statistics, are not -- that come out of those programs are very hard to collect and compile so.
Okay, yeah, I know that there''s national data, for instance, on drivers license, even though each state will tap in their own way and make determinations, so I was just looking for more aggregate data. We -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. There''s typically not -- and that''s another issue is, you know, a lot of times I''ll get questions that -- that would assume that the federal government had a role to play in collecting, you know, state and local information, and, you know, there are -- there are efforts here and there for the federal government to collect state-related information. But specific to disability, there aren''t many.
Well, obviously, not in this category though. [Chuckle] Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Thank you. Next question please.
My name is Peter. I have a question that was submitted by someone using the online streaming. And they wanted to know, Andrew, whether or not you''re working on statistics about the cost of accommodations in the workplace? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: I would -- I would reference the work that''s being done out of Syracuse University about the cost of accommodation. If you go to the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, you''ll probably find the best information on that.
And is that -- is that project funded by ODEP, Office of Disab -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: I think they come from various sources.
Okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: You know, I know that some of it comes from the Job Accommodation Network out of ODEP, out of the U.S. Department of Labor. But the analysis might be paid for by another source, I''m not sure. But I know that the Job Accommodation Network out of West Virginia is also another source for the cost of accommodation. The cost of accommodation ends up being a fairly tricky thing to collect in terms of survey information. You really can''t get at -- employers are very hard to survey. And then when you -- even if you were able to survey employers, you have issues where there are a lot of accommodations that have implicit costs that, you know, change in supervisorial relationships, change in work hours, things like that are not physical capital; they''re not, you know, chairs or modifications or equipment. They''re things that are very hard to cost so.
Definitely. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: And then you have fixed costs, one-time costs like augmenting an entrance way versus, you know, costs that are month to month to month.
Definitely. Next question, please.
The next question comes from Rick Andrews.
Go ahead.
Rick Andrews, your line is open. Please check your mute button.
You talking about Rick Andrews?
Yeah. Rick Edwards, go ahead.
All right. Thanks. I had a comment and a question first with the comment, congratulations Chicago Blackhawks. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Oh, yeah, right. [Laughter]
Bob''s got a question here.
Yes. I''m Bob Brider with the Vocational Rehabilitation in Indiana. And on Slide 20 or Table, yeah, Slide 20, where you''re talking about future expansion. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
And specifically include cost statistics. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
Would that include, please, pray, cost benefit analyses? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: [Laughter] you know, this is designed so -- so yes and no. It''s a good question, and it raises another issue that I want to talk about, so I have to make a note. You know, it will have cost -- the potential is to have cost information, but in terms of cost benefit analysis, it''s not likely that the compendium will provide any kind of call, I would say, or any kind of statement as to the net costs or the net benefit. The cost benefit analysis is much more difficult and needs much more attention to detail than the compendium would particularly have. If there was a source for that information that was published -- right now, we''re strictly sticking to federal publications -- but if there was a source that published cost benefit information in a comprehensive and straightforward way, we certainly would consider providing that. The compendium is really designed to do just the facts, you know. And it''s not provided -- it''s not designed to actually, you know -- it''s not -- in that sense, it''s not a research document that''s testing a hypothesis or making a claim. Cost benefit analysis is definitely -- what''s the term I''m looking for? An art form, so. This also raises some -- since you''re from Indiana, this also raises an issue or a topic. One of the things that I''ve been working on under -- in a separate project under the Statistics Center is producing county-level statistics. And we did work with the Statewide Independent Living Council of Indiana, actually, and we''re in the process of drafting a report that looks at statistics for the size of the population of disabilities employment rates, incomes, poverty rates by Indiana County, and then sums it up to the catchment areas of the current Independent Living Centers in Indiana and the five proposed Independent Living Centers that are on -- that are slated to potentially be developed. And so county level statistics are actually, you know -- the great benefit of the American Community Survey is that it has huge samples, and we can pull years together to get pretty precise statistics at the county level. And a lot of folks are working at the county and local level, and we hope to be provided, you know -- right now we''re kind of providing it on a -- on a, you know, just when people ask for it. But we hope to be providing more county-level information perhaps via the Web. You know, right now I could, you know, since you''re [inaudible] from Indiana VR, you know, I''ve always wanted from CSAVR are some other organizations, you know most state agencies -- have district offices, and those district offices run along county borders. And if that''s true, then I can easily develop statistics for district offices of a specific VR agency and, you know, I used to do that kind of work with New York out of -- when I was at Cornell, and there''s going to be increased capacity to do that.
Great. We''d love to see that report that you''re working on now. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. So I''m not sure it is in the draft form. It was pretty finalized about a couple months ago, but I think -- I''m not sure where it is in the process.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you.
And reports like that, Andrew, when you do those for organizations and entities and things like that, when you turn that over to them, that really becomes their property. It''s something that you distribute or distribute further through the RRTC or -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. It''s much more of a collaborative, you know. Basically, we enter into these conference calls, you know, where we kind of say, okay, what do they want, what kind of statistics are they looking for, maybe for their planning or advocacy purposes? And then I, you know, we ratchet back and forth between what''s available in the current data and what they need. A lot of times, you know, the statistics that are available can''t meet specific needs, so we try to get close with what''s available. And then I''ll estimate the tables. We''ll look at them together, you know, estimate the statistics. And then we''ll put it into a report and, you know, I''ll give them the methodology and they can summarize results. And then we, you know, will -- I''ll put it out under either a joint name or under my name, whatever they want, and they can go with it as they please. Sometimes -- I''ve got out -- I did this same for Colorado. Actually in Chicago, I worked with the Chicago Community Trust to do some benchmarking for them. And I''ve gone out to present at various places around the country when I do this kind of stuff. Other things I''ve done is like estimate occupations, so I''m working with the American Statistical Association to estimate the number of statisticians with disabilities, [Laughter] you know, and compare that to the number of economists with disabilities and --
Well, that''s an interesting one. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah turns out there''s more statisticians with disabilities than there are economists. I''m not quite sure why that is. But anyway, so, you know, number of lawyers with disabilities, I''ve estimated in the past for the Bar Association. And so, you know, those kinds of things can be done upon request, and we do set aside money -- NIDRR pays us to do this -- and we set aside money each year and estimate stylized statistics. You know, the thing for the Indiana -- and we''re doing it now for the City of New York, is that, you know, I estimate county-level statistics. I can do it for every county, it''s just one line of code in the statistics program, and I can spit out county-level statistics for every state. The harder part is the crafting of a report or presenting, you know, I can''t go to every state.
Yeah, right makes it difficult. Distance options such as this makes it -- at least people have more options to you some of your information which I think works out good. So next question, please.
The next question comes from Brian Burrows. [Sounds like]
Okay. Go ahead.
On Slide 10 you reference particular focus on state level statistics in the first year. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yup.
Was that in the first year only? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: No. No. It''s going to build over time. I''ll keep, you know, the idea is -- one of things I want to do is that people can look to update their, you know, if they use it one year, they can find it again the next year if the agency has updated it. And so I''ll keep the -- the compendium will keep the first set of tables and then add the additional tables, so we''ll expand it. We won''t shift the focus. Does that make sense?
Yes. Thank you. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. Because the idea is, you know, is to have something that people can look -- look -- not necessarily look forward to.
Ask a question and get them answered and get on out of there.
Get out of the queue. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Who wants to get out of the queue?
Andrew I''ve got -- if you''re done with that one, I have another question submitted from some using audio streaming. They noted that in Slides 10 and 11, the information starts at age 18, and Slide starts at -- and Slide 18 starts at age 16 and they wanted to know if the compendium contains any information about children with disabilities, especially those at elementary and secondary age? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. So we do provide some statistics from the Office of Special Education Programs, from OSEP, around special education programs. There''s a lot of frustration with child related statistics on disability: A. The big surveys don''t really do a good job of collecting, you know, they know that the questions -- these questions they use are fairly weak at identifying the population of children with disabilities. Another frustration is always you get different age ranges, you know, 16 plus, 16 to 80, you know, 64. What I can say is, if you''re looking for a slightly different age range, give me a call, I might be able to find it or estimate it.
Andrew, the follow-up to that: Children with disabilities, some of those statistics are obviously maintained by the Department of Education as it would relate to children that are in the educational system and identified as having a disability; is that correct? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. So whether they have an IEP, whether they have a 504 Plan is not typically --
They''re not counted. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: -- collected. They''re not counted in the special education programs.
Right. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: I did have a source a few years ago that -- that had those, you know, it was kind of like IEP or equivalent, so it tried to capture 504, maybe Title 1 students, but no, 504 is not typically collected.
All right. And then it''s only those children that are actually using those various services. So even the early childhood education, you know, birth-to-three programs and, you know -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: There are birth-to-three statistics. As long as they''re IDEA, birth to three.
Right. So, again, they have to be in the system, and that means they have to have a parent or whoever has got the child involved in the system, which we also know there are a lot children that don''t get into those systems. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. One of the -- one of the really difficult parts of it is that, you know, we get these statistics from special education programs, from IDEA, and then we get these estimates from the surveys, and the surveys have a smaller population, so we know that surveys are not doing a very good job, you know, so.
In capturing that information right, yeah. Next question, please.
At this time I''m showing no further questions. Once again, if you have a question, please press Star 1.
I have another one submitted from someone online. They wanted, Andrew, clarification from Slide 13 about the glossary that was referenced as to what that is and where that can be located. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Okay. So it''s at the back of the compendium, and it will provide -- it will provide the very specific kind of -- oh, I skipped that slide, I think. Anyway. [Chuckle] The -- the glossary is in the back of the compendium, and it''ll provide the definitions that are provided by the agencies and the original sources. I will say that one of the things that I try to do very carefully is stick to the language of the agencies. The agencies use very specific language on purpose, and so -- and also, you know, you want to stick to what the original source was. Using language, you know, if they use the word "disabled," we have to use it because that''s how respondents are responding, based on that word. So we always try to stick to even though it''s not always the best -- the most appropriate language.
And, Andrew, you know what we get a lot of calls from and get a lot of questions and such as that people are looking for statistics to use in a report. You know, they want to embed statistics and PowerPoint, or they want, you know, whatever else it might be, a variety of different things. Would it be your recommendation that, you know, one of the first -- if somebody says to you, "I want to get some statistics that would give a broad idea or a broad picture of what, you know, disability looked like, you know, in the United States," would the compendium be the place to go or? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. So the compendium would be the first, you know, I''d recommend going to compendium first, and then, you know, Google makes it so easy these days. Although it''s -- there''s all these different places, you know. Going through the compendium finding -- looking at the original source and then by all means cite the Census Bureau. We don''t necessarily want to be cited. Cite the Census Bureau, you know, there''s a certain degree of, you know, when you cite the Census Bureau, it becomes more powerful. So go to the original source. And also sometimes the original sources have more -- more information that might meet your needs so.
And when I''m pulling from the American Community Center survey, what is it currently like? Is it -- right now is 2008 available, is 2009, you know -- is it 2008, right. So it''s usually two hours -- two years behind; is that correct? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: It''s typically 2000 -- you know, they collect the data. Typically, what you get is in August, in September, you start getting the previous year''s information.
Okay. I think that''s important for people to understand. Because, like, people will call us, again, and they''ll, you know, "I want current data." And it''s like, the problem is that they collect this and then they have to synthesis it and work with it, so it''s not like you''re getting it in real time. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. They do a lot of things. You know, they do things like protecting identifiable information, so if there''s a set of octuplets, you know, [Laughter] they change some of the ages of the kids to hide them, you know, the fact that you can''t find people with octuplets. [Chuckle]
Yeah. Okay. Okay. That makes -- that makes total sense. And then my other question -- or I guess, my comment would be that we see every year, at least we have in the last couple of years, I haven''t seen it come out yet, that the Census Bureau puts out something in relationship to the anniversary of the ADA, you know, they kind of put out some kind of a statistic or whatever. Are they pulling that again from the American Survey are they relying on some of the stuff you guys have synthesized or what. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: They use their own stuff.
Yeah. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: And typically they''ve used -- typically they''ve used the one that comes from the 54 million numbers, so they''re used the Survey of Income and Program Participation. I think they try to stick -- at least in past years -- it''s been a while since I''ve seen the ADA anniversary, but it''s a nice little piece, and I think they actually have some audio snippets that go along with it, where you can get kind of a -- if you''re doing a radio piece, you can, you know, "The Director of the Census says" this, that, and the other thing.
And would that be on their website, would you say, if somebody was looking for that? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. Yeah, that''s right. So --
Yeah. I haven''t seen the stuff for this year and -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: I haven''t either.
Yeah. They usually put it out, you know, and kind of recognizing the anniversary for people to use for press and things of that nature, but they just may just not have put it out yet. Maybe they''re waiting for July 1 or something like that to put it out. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: They might be. Might be.
Yeah. But it would be something that the snippets and things like the audio snippets and stuff that would be something that you would -- someone could find on their website if they were looking for that? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. They''re pretty good at it. I mean, it''s a nice little document that they have.
Yeah. For the anniversary -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: And it''s highly citable, and by all means, you know, the Census Bureau is -- is the go-to source for many statistics on the population, and the -- I don''t know if the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a -- or ODEP has a plan to do their own release because, you know, they''re the official source of employment statistics in the United States.
Right. And they -- we haven''t -- they have not -- they didn''t do anything last year. This is the second year of the labor statistics, correct? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
Right. So I don''t know, we''ll see what they do, given this being the 25th anniversary and such. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah there''s lots of movement, you know.
Right. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: The NCD is hosting a big conference so there''s --
Right lots of things happening with the, obviously, 20th anniversary so. Let me just check one more time with our operator to see if there''s any questions from our audience.
We do have a question from Caroline Ambrose.
Go ahead.
Is it un-muted? I had a question. I noted that you talk a lot about the baby boomers and the increase in disabilities of baby boomers. I''m wondering if any statistics have been gathered about increasing disability populations after the various wars. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: You know I haven''t seen that. I haven''t seen anything like that. You know, the number of veterans is still pretty small in comparison to the size of the overall population with disabilities. And so I haven''t, you know, my priority would be that -- the population with disabilities is pretty darn big, and it would have to be a pretty big war to see changes in that population, to change those numbers in appreciable ways.
So you''re saying statistically it would have to -- you''d have to have huge numbers to statistically change things. Is what you''re saying? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. But let me tell you, there is something great -- another good thing about the American Community Survey is that last year they added a question about the presence of a service connected disability and the actual percentage rating. The VA gives a percentage rating of disability, you know, 0 to 100%. And the Census Bureau started asking that question, and you can also get what war they were involved in. And so that data''s out there. We do, in the compendium, report some of those statistics. I think we have one table in the compendium about veterans with disabilities. And, you know, unfortunately, you can''t really cross tab it very well to get at, say, what''s the traumatic brain injury versus loss of limb or things like that. But you can get statistics like that. But, again, it''s relatively small compared to the fairly large size in the overall population.
Robin, again, another question from someone using audio streaming. And, Andrew, they want to know, looking for specific data by job title. And this is in relation to affirmative action. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: By specific job title. It certainly -- so the statistics that are out there are all based off of the -- of the Standard Occupational Class, the SOC, the Standard Occupational Codes Classification System, so they certainly are feasible to collect those kinds of things. I haven''t seen them published. We were going to publish some out of Cornell for a while and then never got to publication to them. But they certainly are feasible. If you have a specific occupation in mind, let me know. One of the issues that comes up with occupation statistics that we really haven''t cracked is that if you look at the top ten occupations with -- that have people with disabilities in those jobs, you''ll see the traditional four Fs -- the food, filth, flower, and filing -- that young individuals are moved into as they transition from school to work. But you also see the other six are occupations --
The veterans -- if the veterans heard that. I mean that makes them feel really --
Can we hold on for a second. Operator, can you mute that line. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
You still have an open line somewhere. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah, so -- so you can see that the four F''s, the food, filth, flowers, and filing, but the other six are occupations that are really good at producing disability. [Chuckle] You know, so you get machinist and people that -- that in occupations that put their hands and arms in harm''s way. And so -- so a lot of people with disabilities are still working in the jobs that they, you know, that were the source of those disabilities. And so with a lot of data, just like the onset question, we don''t have what''s called longitudinal data that follows an individual over time and then looks at the onset of disability or whether it''s from birth or not. And so what we''d really like to know, and ODEP, the Office of Disability Employment Policy -- and NIDRR''s doing some research in this area -- what we''d really like to know which employers are hiring people with disabilities. Unfortunately, we really can''t -- and in which occupations are they being slotted into, or are they entering into. And I gave away a little of my bias there, but -- so what occupations are they being hired into. You really need longitudinal data that follows a student over time, or a person over time after the onset of disability. Because with just snapshot data like the American Community Survey, you can''t disentangle whether the job is the source of the disability or whether the person was hired into that job.
Great. Thank you. Any others still have questions from --
We have another question from Rick Edwards.
I had one other question, make sure you answered the pop quiz. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks. So what''s the answer to the pop quiz?
Are you asking me? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
Definition of a person with disability. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. That''s right. So what''s the definition? So you know it takes the Social Security Administration, on average, something like a year and a half to determine whether an individual has a disability. Surveys use only six questions. So you''re obviously going to get different answers when you look at the two different individuals. So the definition of disability is the answer to the pop quiz.
Very good, Indiana. You get gold star for that. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. They get the gold star.
Andrew, I have another question from online. Individual said they they''ve looked at the consortium, and don''t see a breakdown by disability; i.e. blindness, deafness, mobility impairment. And they want to know if they contacted you, they could get that information. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. Sure. There''s some information. You know, the Census Bureau that -- the American Community Survey which is the one of the big sources, just split what they called "sensory disability," which was one question, into hearing and vision. And I think they -- by the time we went to print with the compendium, they hadn''t reported specific disability types out of the new data that split vision and hearing. But absolutely, give me a call -- e-mail or call, and I''ll be happy to send you in that direction. I''d have to say overall if you''re looking at the -- for specific disability information, and you''re not interested in state breakdowns, the best source would actually be the Survey of Income Program Participation, the 2005 publication that''s listed on a slide that talks about the 54 million number. The Survey of Income Participation has like 60 slides -- 60 questions on disability including use of personal assistant services, use of a few assisted devices, severity measures, and things like that. So if you''re interested in national level statistics on specific types of disability, the place to go is the Survey of Income and Program Participation. But, again, by all means, give me a call or an e-mail and I''ll direct you in the right way.
And, Andrew, how often is that particular survey done? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: [Laughter] Well, I''m glad you asked. So it''s typically asked every two or three years. But it''s in the process of being cut. So --
Being cut because of funding? Being cut -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
-- of whatever. Oh, okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Because of funding. The Census Bureau funded itself for years, and now they''re kind of passing the hat. And it''s not just disability. There''s a whole tax -- tax survey that''s attached to the SIPP; there''s a whole, you know, voting survey, you know. So they''re saying we can''t afford all these separate little supplemental surveys, so they''re passing the hat, and right now there''s nobody coughing up the dough for the 2010 version.
That''s interesting because that really will leave a hole in -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
- in the statistical arena as far as more details then; is that correct? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: That''s exactly right. You know the SIPP is considered the big standard that -- I hate to say gold -- but it''s considered a very important source of specific disability information. It''s used to do cost estimates for various -- so when they do budget scoring, the University of San Francisco did some great work on the budget scoring of personal assistant services legislation; and without the SIPP, we no longer have anything that''s useful to do budget scoring, and so it''s going to be a huge gap. In fact, disability statistics were cited -- the whole program for the SIPP was going to be cut -- the whole survey was going to be cut, and disability statistics were one of the things that saved it. You know, we actually did some advocacy around saving it. But they still can''t do all of it, and, you know, I think it''s -- it''s, I think it''s kind of -- there needs to be a little bit of legislation slotted in that gives a little bit of money to an agency to give to the Census Bureau to do it.
Yeah especially given how many entities and how many things rely on that information. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. It''s the only information that we have on the general population that -- for wheelchair use, the only one. So, you know, it''s the only one that gives the full population so.
Yeah, definitely any additional questions?
I''m sorry. Andrew, question about are there other statistics available regarding the use of adaptive technology such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, alternative keyboards, etc.? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: That''s a really good question. So, oh, there is some new stuff out there, so actually this same survey, the survey of Incoming Programs Participation, had a massive thing on use of devices and use of the internet. The Current Population Survey, which is done also by the Census, has had a computer use question. That one was -- I think was smaller. There are some -- there are some advances in that whether the data''s ready and available is a good question. Actually, I was just working with SIPP this morning. I don''t know whether adaptive technology is -- has reached those surveys. They''re still just looking at bandwidth and usage and where do you get access to it. One of the big things that''s out there is that people with disabilities have less access to the internet and to technology; in part, because the employment rate is so low. Most people access the internet in some way through work, or laptops from work, and, you know, if people aren''t working, they''re not going to have access to that avenue for getting connected.
It is something that might be there in some of the more recent surveys but the data''s not out yet, is what you''re saying? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. I have to look. So if you send me a question, I''ll remember to look and send me an e-mail.
And just to remember -- reminder that his e-mail information was on his last slide, so you have that information any additional questions?
I''m showing no further questions.
Okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Let me just wrap up one comment though.
Okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: And I''m in the middle of writing a bunch of proposals, so if I don''t answer your e-mail quickly, [Chuckle] I''ll get to it as fast as I can.
That''s fair. And in the world of trying to put some proposals out there to get more funding to do the kind of work that you''re doing -- Peter, did you have a question that you wanted?
Yeah. There was another one here, Andrew. Wants to know what is the universe -- the total number of people defined as having a -- having a disability. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: So it depends. It -- you know, the biggest estimate comes from the Survey of Income Program Participation, it''s a relatively old estimate, the 2005 data, at 54.4 million that -- that -- but that number does not include the population that lives in institutions. So that would be my, I think, that''s the best estimate we have right now.
And then, are there any international statistics that look at, I mean, you know, when the -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
--when the U.N. was doing the, you know, the treaty and stuff, you said there are a lot of statistics that were used there. I''m unclear, and others probably are too, as to where those statistics were drawn from. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. I was never clear of that either. There''s -- there''s not a lot of -- you can''t get uniform estimates across sources in the U.S., and getting consistent estimates across the country -- across the world is a challenge as well. The EU is producing statistics for many of the member states using a similar set of questions across the states -- across the EU member states. In terms of other countries, it''s really a hodgepodge, a real hodgepodge. There was a review done by the International Labor Organization, the ILO, but that''s got to be almost eight or nine years old, so it''s really a potpourri.
Yeah. Right I know that that''s the problem with anything we do internationally; you don''t have apples and apples to compare as to how they collect their data going back to your comment about the 54 million and the Income Participation Survey. Because that does not count institutionalized persons, do you have an estimate of what the numbers would be if you did add in that group of individuals? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. So the number that''s typically thrown around is two million.
So you would add that to your 54? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
Okay. So you would get up into the 56.4 whatever million. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: 56.4. That''s a very back of the envelope. I mean, I''ve written a lot. There''s a paper I did out of Cornell with a coauthor, Bill Erickson that looked at this issue. Some folks at Mathematica have a paper that looks at this issue. I''d be glad to send it to people who are interested, but the collection of information on people living in institutions is not highly distributed and not highly -- not highly considered of very good quality.
Probably for some other reasons. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah. I mean, well, I mean, it''s goes to responses and how to survey and access those individuals. You know, there''s a large population in the corrections institutions, and do you depend on the correction facility to report whether a person has a disability? I don''t think so. [Chuckle] So there''s a real access issue with just counting -- just counting the raw number in -- of people living in institutions for the Census is -- is a huge issue trying to get whether that person has a disability or not is another one altogether.
Yeah. Great thank you. I know that''s been a longstanding issue, and I just want to clarify if people were looking at -- because sometimes you do see the numbers, 56, you know, million thrown out and stuff sometimes, we''ll get questions of why is there a discrepancy in the numbers that I''m seeing. So. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: That''s right.
That''s why. It depends on what people are using for their compilation. Well, great. We are getting near the bottom of the hour, so let me just make a few comments here. One, I want to thank you, Andrew, for spending time with us today and helping people understand and kind of weed through the information, kind of hopefully, you know, some puzzling, or un-puzzling, of some things for them. Probably created some more questions for people, and they do have your contact and the RRTC Stats -- is the website for the StatsRRTC, the compendium''s address or -- Dr. Andrew Houtenville: Yeah.
Okay. Dr. Andrew Houtenville: It''s just that.
You want to repeat that one again, then, for me? Dr. Andrew Houtenville: http://www.disabilitycompendium.org .
Okay great. And just want to remind people, again, that this session has been recorded. A transcript of this session also has been created, and we will be editing that transcript and posting this information up onto our website so you can listen to it again if you want to hear or listen for some clarification of some of the information that was received today. I also want to invite people to consider participation next month on our session titled, "The 20th Anniversary of the ADA." It''s our ADA update. This is where we have Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission come together and talk to us. Just as an advance on that, we do know that the Department of Justice is poised to release the Title II and Title III regulations in conjunction with the anniversary of the ADA at the end of July. It may not happen exactly on the anniversary, but right now it''s slated to occur. That''s all -- what all is in the works, and the goal for that to happen, so we know that John Wodatch will be joining us from Department of Justice, will be addressing some of the things related to that rule and regulation. I wish I could say the same about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; unfortunately, they have not yet convened. They do have their membership back in order to some degree, so that they actually can convene and take votes. But what we''re waiting for is the current configuration of the EEOC to have their meeting, to be able to vote on a final version of the ADA Amendment Act regulations. But right now there is no meeting slated for that group. Once they do, there will be a 90-day period of time in which the Office of Management and Budget, which is the process within the federal government for rule making, will have to review and look at those regulations before they can come out. So we''re right now talking into the fall before even earliest possible of the regulations -- final regulations for the ADA Amendments Act. But Sharon will be giving us some updates on that and talking about some of the directions and some of the comments that were received during the public comment period last -- earlier this year, end of last year. So please join us. That''s on July 20. And if you''re interested in registering, please go to our website, www.ada-audio.org. If you have other questions and concerns that we might be able to help you with, please contact your regional ADA center. As I said earlier, there are ten centers that comprise the ADA National Network, and you can contact us at (800) 949-4232, that''s both voice and TTY, and you''ll be directed to the center that serves your geographic area. You also can go to our national website which is www.adata.org, and you''ll be able to locate the location of your specific center and their individual website if you''re interested in doing that. So I would like to again thank our speaker. Want to thank all of you for taking some time out of your busy day to participate, and everyone have a great rest of your day and hope to see you in -- or hear from you in July. Thank you very much. You can now disconnect.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference for today. Again, thank you for your participation. You may all disconnect. Have a good day.