International Measurement of Disability

Barbara M. Altman is a sociologist with a PhD from the University of Maryland. Retired from the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, where she served as Special Assistant on Disability Statistics to the office of the Director, she also worked at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Prior to her work in the government, she served as Undergraduate Coordinator in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland. She currently serves as a consultant on disability statistics issues. She played a key role in the organization and development of the work of the Washington Group, an international group working under the auspices of the United Nations, to develop culturally compatible measures of disability for international use and still consults on that activity. Her disability research interests focus primarily on disability definition and measurement, financing and utilization of health care services by persons with disabilities, and disability among minority groups, particularly Native Americans. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on disability topics including the recent Disability and Health in the United States Chartbook, and currently is co-editor of the series Research in Social Science and Disability.

Dedication.- Introduction - Barbara M. Altman, Washington Group Secretariat.- I Origin of the Washington Group and Issues in Disability Data Collection.- 1 Background and Origin of the Washington Group: Improving the State of Disability Data - Julie D. Weeks, Washington Group Secretariat.- 2 Cross-national Issues in Disability Data Collection - Marguerite Schneider, South Africa.- 3 Processes and Milestones of Washington Group - Cordell Golden, Washington Group Secretariat.- II Census Questions: Purpose, Process and Testing.- 4 Purpose of an International Comparable Census  Disability Measure - Barbara Altman, Washington Group Secretariat and Elizabeth Rasch, United States.- 5 Summary  of Washington Group Question Evaluation Studies - Kristen Miller, United States.- 6 The Harmonized Joint Pilot Tests for 2010 Population Census Round in Latin American Countries: An Integration Experience - Alicia Berkovich, Brazil.- III Moving Forward: Extended Question Sets and Methodological Advances.- 7 Development of Disability Measures for Surveys: The Washington Group Extended Set on Functioning - Mitchell Loeb, Washington Group Secretariat.- 8 The Asian Testing Experience - Marguerite Schneider, South Africa and Andres Montes, Thailand.- 9 The Challenges of Conducting National Surveys of Disability among Children - Howard Meltzer, England.- 10 Building a "Module on Child functioning and Disability" - Roberta Crisalesi, Elena DePalma, Alessandra Battisti, and Children's Workgroup, Italy.- 11 Cognitive Analysis on Survey Questions for Identifying Out-of-School Children with Disabilities in India - Daniel Mont, England, Sathi Alur, India, Mitchell Loeb, Washington Secretariat, Kristen Miller, United States.- 12 Developing Tools to Identify Environmental Factors as Context for Disability: A Theoretical Perspective - Barbara M. Altman, Washington Group Secretariat and Howard Meltzer, England.- 13 International Comparisons of Disability Prevalence Estimates: Impact of Accounting or not Accounting for the Institutionalized Population - Emmanuelle Cambois, Carol Jagger, Wilma Nusselder, Herman Van Oyen, Jean-Marie Robine, France.- IV Conclusions: Outcomes and Place of the Washington Group Measures in International Data.- 14 The Washington Group on the Improvement of Disability Statistics Globally:  Perspectives from the Philippines - Romy Virola and Jessamyn O. Encarnacion, Philippines.- 15 International census/survey data and the short set of disability questions developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics - Mitchell Loeb, Washington Group Secretariat.- 16 Swift and systematic? Identifying and recording disability in forced migration - Mary Crock and Laura Smith-Khan, Australia.- 17 The Washington Group's Contribution to Disability Statistics and a Look to the Future.- Jennifer Madans, Washington Group Secretariat.- 18 What if There Were No Washington Group? - Mary Chamie. and Judy Heumann, United States.