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Disability Data From the American Community Survey: A Brief Examination of the Effects of a Question Redesign in 2003
Disability Data From the American Community Survey: A Brief Examination of the Effects of a Question Redesign in 2003
Summary
In response to evidence suggesting that mail respondents were reporting certain disabilities in error, the Census Bureau introduced changes to the ACS questionnaire in 2003. The initial review of the data shows that fewer people reported go-outside-home disability and employment disability. Since the Census Bureau has no independent evidence of a national trend with regard to these types of conditions, and the apparent change coincided with the question redesign, additional analysis was essential. Since the changes only involved the ACS mail questionnaire, the focus of this preliminary review was differences between people reporting by mail and people reporting by telephone or personal interview. Comparison of these groups to each other and across time shows that the question redesign had the expected effect on the mail respondents, lowering the rates of disability overall by reducing over-reporting in the go-outside-home disability and employment disability.
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Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021
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