Comparing caregivers’ and children’s perception of child disability using the Washington Group Short Set of Questions

• In Event: The Equity Initiative: Innovations and Challenges in Using Functionality Screenings with Children

Proposal

The Washington Group Short Set of Questions on Disability (“Short Set”) is a question set developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to identify survey respondents who have functional limitations which “have the potential to limit their independent participation in society” (for more information, see the “Statement of rationale for the Washington Group Short Set of questions on disability,” available at www.washingtongroup-disability.com). This six-question survey gathers data on respondents’ limitations in six primary domains: mobility, sight, hearing, cognition, self-care, and communication. It is designed for national surveys and censuses and to produce data that can be compared across countries.
The Short Set is intended for use with adults and has not yet been validated for direct use children. However, many early grade reading assessments and other school-based surveys would greatly benefit from being able to collect information about disabilities directly from children in order to study school participation and learning outcomes from this critical equity angle. In February 2017, the Save the Children team in Rwanda tested the Short Set with both caregivers and their children as part of a household baseline survey for the USAID-funded literacy project, Mureke Dusome (“Let’s Read”). Approximately 900 caregivers and their children were asked about the children’s limitations using the Short Set of Questions on Disability. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the Short Set has been used with both caregivers and children and the data matched together for analysis.
This paper will present the side-by-side Short Set data from caregivers and their children and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the utilized methodology. We will also demonstrate how children’s literacy practices differed based on their functional limitations, as identified by the Short Set. Finally, we will present ways that Save the Children and other organizations can move forward with collecting critical data on children’s disabilities using these questions.

Author

• Christine Jonason, Save the Children - USA