Disability

Disability status is determined by a set of questions (The Washington Group Short Set), that ask respondents about their ability to carry out six basic activities.

The activities are:

• seeing, even if wearing glasses
• hearing, even if using a hearing aid
• walking or climbing steps
• remembering or concentrating
• washing all over or dressing
• communicating

The response options are:

• No difficulty
• Some difficulty
• A lot of difficulty
• Can’t do at all

People who respond ‘a lot of difficulty’ or ‘can’t do at all’ to at least one of the activities are counted as disabled in the survey.