Evaluating Survey Questions Used to Identify Disability: An Application of the International Classification of Disability, Health and Functioning (ICF)

Robert Weathers, Cornell University
Andrew J. Houtenville, Cornell University
S. Antonio Ruiz-Quintanilla, Cornell University

This paper uses a conceptual model of disability derived from the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (WHO, 2001) to assess and categorize survey questions. The first part presents the ICF concepts and shows how current survey questions on disability map to ICF concepts. The second part uses the ICF framework to examine the estimates of the population with a disability across national surveys. The national surveys we use include the American Community Survey (ACS), the decennial Census long form, the CPS, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The final part of the paper uses the conceptual model to assess several current efforts underway to develop new survey questions—including the Bureau of Labor Statistics disability questions to be tested in the February 2006 CPS and new questions being developed for the 2008 ACS.