The U.S. Census Bureau announced on Tuesday that it will not adopt its proposed revisions on how it collects data on disability in the American Community Survey (ACS), citing concerns raised in public comments.
Last year, the Census Bureau proposed switching the survey’s questions used to assess disability to instead adopt six questions developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics as a means of aligning with international standards. It also proposed an additional question on communication difficulties and a new definition of disability for the 2025 survey.
But disability advocates pointed out that the changes could undercount Americans with disabilities by about 20 million, based on a test run of the proposed questions in 2022. Such a decline in the share of the U.S. population with any disability (from 14% to 8%) would have a drastic effect on how resources for research and for services such as housing, health care and legal aid are allocated.
The Census Bureau published a Federal Register notice in October requesting feedback from the public on its proposed changes, and disability advocates and experts urged members of the community to share their concerns. According to the update Tuesday, the notice elicited more than 12,000 comments.
“To cut the number of counted disabled folks while we are experiencing this marked increase in disabled folks is pretty irresponsible, especially when so many long COVID patients are relying on support and services [and] grants that are funded to do research on all of these issues,” Marissa Ditkowsky, the disability economic justice counsel at the National Partnership for Women and Families, told HuffPost in December.
In a statement sent to HuffPost, Silvia Yee, the public policy director of the Disability Rights and Legal Defense Fund, said her organization is “so proud of how the disability community spoke up for ourselves over the risks of being undercounted in the census.
“We hope that the Bureau works with us moving forward not just to avoid harm, but to actively improve how it counts people with disabilities and accurately captures their lives across all population groups.”
The Census Bureau said it will keep its current set of disability questions for the 2025 survey and expressed its intention to engage more with the public on disability issues. According to the update, the bureau plans to meet with disability stakeholders, advocates, researchers and community representatives in the spring to discuss the needs and uses of disability data.
“A significant theme in the Federal Register notice comments is a desire for more comprehensive engagement,” the agency wrote Tuesday. “In the spirit of a whole-of-government approach, the Census Bureau ... and other federal partners are working together to make that happen.”