2y ago

The Census Bureau wants to change how it asks about disabilities. Some advocates don't like it

The U.S. Census Bureau wants to change how it asks people about disabilities, and some advocates don't like where things are heading.

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The TL:DR is that currently whether you have a disability is a yes/no question and the new system replaces that with degrees of disability and uses a cut off that will likely significantly reduce the number of people considered to be disabled. People are afraid that this may affect how much support those that would not meet the threshold would get.
- The rate falls from over 13% for yes/no down to over 8% if only "cannot do at all" and "have extreme difficulty doing" are counted. Adding in "have some difficulty with" jumps the number up to 31%.
  
  It seems obvious that the bureau would want to use "some difficulty" for this determination. Especially if they are seeking "nuance." It also seems obvious that they would seek input from affected populations.
Disturbing tbh
It's like they expect disability to have increased for SOME REASON from previous years. Gosh, what could have caused that? 🙂
- Tis such a mystery.
- I ain't getting any younger over here.
This change would reduce the number of people the government considers to have a disability. That information is used to provide funding for various programs and agencies which deal with disability. This means that, if this change is adopted, less federal funding will go to disability programs, at a time when disability levels are unusually high and still increasing due to the long-term health impacts of COVID-19.

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