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    A controversial Census Bureau proposal could shrink the U.S. disability rate by 40%

    The Census Bureau has proposed changing how it produces data about people with disabilities. It could reduce the national rate of disability by about 40%. That's sparked controversy among advocates.
    by Hansi Lo Wang Dec 18, 2023 5 minutes
    The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed changes to how its annual American Community Survey produces estimates of how many people with disabilities are living in the country.
    Updated December 18, 2023 at 7:58 PM ET

    A proposal to change how the Census Bureau produces a key set of estimates about the number of people with disabilities in the United States has sparked controversy among many disability advocates.

    Some are concerned that the potential revisions to the disability questions on the bureau's annual American Community Survey, as well as how the bureau reports out people's responses, could skew the government's official statistics. That in turn, advocates worry, would make it harder to ensure that disabled people have access to housing and health care, enforce legal protections against discrimination in schools and at work, and prepare communities for disasters and emergencies.

    The proposal has also resurfaced longstanding questions about how accurately the bureau's data represents people with disabilities in the U.S., especially as more people are living with the emerging effects of long COVID.

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