Conference: Global meeting on disability statistics



Conference: Global meeting on disability statistics

Last week, EDF participated in the Washington Group on Disability Statistics which came together for its 19th meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This United Nations Group brings together representatives from national statistical offices, development agencies, NGOs and DPOs from across the world to discuss ways to improve data collection on persons with disability.

The Group developed a short and extended set of questions on disability to be used in national census and surveys, which aims at internationally comparable data on persons with disabilities at the international level. They are also developing tools to collect data on persons with psychosocial disability and mental health, employment, child functioning and inclusive education, and also with regards to the level of severity of a person’s disability. You can find all the details in the presentations on these different topics.

We highlighted during the meeting the need to closely involve and consult with representative organisations of persons with disabilities at the national, regional and international levels when developing and testing these data collection tools, as to ensure that the questions developed include the perspective and barriers faced by persons with disabilities. We have been advocating for years at EU level for the member states and Eurostat to use the Washington Group set of questions.