Washington Group on Disability Statistics

Ninth Meeting

October 7-9, 2009: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

 

Overview

The ninth meeting of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics will be held October 7-9 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The 8th Meeting of the Washington Group held in Manila introduced the Extended Set of Questions, the Matrix that guided their development and the plans for Cognitive and Field Testing of the final set of Extended Questions. The major topic on the agenda for the 9th meeting will be the presentation and discussion of the results of the Cognitive and Field Testing of the Extended Question Sets.

 

Cognitive and Field Testing

Training for the Cognitive and Field Testing of the proposed Extended Sets took place in Bangkok, Thailand in February 2009. The combined testing exercises were carried out in collaboration with UNESCAP. For the cognitive testing phase, participating countries were asked to conduct approximately 20 interviews. A small group met following the cognitive testing in May in Washington to discuss the preliminary analysis of the cognitive testing results. Seven countries participated in the cognitive/field testing workshop: Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Fiji, Maldives, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Philippines.

In addition, Canada, the US and South Africa have also conducted cognitive tests of the Extended Set and these will also be incorporated into the analysis of results.

Results from the cognitive tests will be used to inform the field testing. A combined sample of approximately 1,000 interviews is recommended for the field testing.

The main objectives of the field testing are to test:

• the relationship between the WG Short and Extended Sets
• cross country comparability
• the individual hypotheses arising from cognitive testing and translation

The results from both the cognitive and field tests will be documented and presented at the 9th meeting of the WG.

It is expected that the 9th Meeting will also introduce the topic of the methodological considerations that are required with respect to special populations such as children with disabilities and institutionalized persons.

In addition to updates on other Washington Group related activities, the United Nations Statistical Division, UN affiliates, and the World Bank will report on their recent activities related to disability statistics, and the Steering Committee chair will lead a discussion on strategic issues including planning next steps.

 

Objectives for the 9th meeting:

1. Present the results of the cognitive and field testing of the proposed extended set of questions.
2. WG activities and overlap with the work of other disability data collection initiatives
3. Special methodological considerations
   1. Children with disabilities
   2. Institutionalized populations
4. Discussion of strategic issues

 

Contacts:

For agenda and meeting content:

Cordell Golden
National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road, Room 6429
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Telephone: 301-458-4237
Fax: 301-458-4038
Email: CGolden@cdc.gov

For local arrangements:

Mr. Irenius Ruyobya
National Bureau of Statistics
Kivukoni Front
P.O. Box 796
Telephone: +255 (22) 2132549
Fax: +255 (22) 2130852
Mobile phone: +255 753 192589
Email: iruyobya@hotmail.com

Mrs. Aldegunda Komba
National Bureau of Statistics
Kivukoni Front
P.O. Box 796
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Telephone: +255 (22) 2132549
Fax: +255 (22) 2130852
Mobile phone: +255 754 583416
Email: aldekomba@nbs.go.tz