Census Bureau Meets with Disability Advocates

Census Bureau Meets with Disability Advocates

Following the withdrawal of a proposed change to how the American Community Survey (ACS) asks about disability status, the Census Bureau met with disability community advocates September 30, 2024 on a wide range of data issues of interest to the community.

According to the Coalition for Human Needs, Census Bureau Director Rob Santos “made it clear that the Bureau does not plan to propose any changes to the disability questions for at least 2 years… He also noted that the Bureau has neither decided to move ahead with nor reject last year’s proposal, but any decision will be made after discussions with the disability community. He did not identify any planned next steps. The discussion, however, ranged far beyond discussion of last year’s proposal to explore why even existing questions and federal surveys omit many kinds of disabilities, how data is even more inaccurate for children than adults, and how the Bureau’s data collection process makes it difficult or impossible to include people with particular kinds of disabilities.”