The Washington Group short set of questions on functional impairment

Originally published in October 2014

The WHO estimates that one in seven people have a disability, but in most countries there is little information around this. Data is not collected at all, or not collected appropriately. This makes it far too easy to ignore the needs of people with disabilities, who are already amongst the most marginalised in society. The Washington Group questions help us to address this gap.

The mandate for the Washington Group on Disability Measurement grew out of the initial work begun at the United Nations International Seminar on Measurement of Disability in New York on June 4–6, 2001.

Wider use of the Washington Group questions will enable delivery of disaggregated data. This will allow us to ensure that international development interventions are truly inclusive. Using the questions will support us in our efforts to leave no one behind.

The Washington Group questions have been rigorously tested in the field across continents in many languages to ensure that they deliver comparable data.

The Washington Group questions are not perfect. The short questions do not currently measure mental health. It is not possible to address the complexity of mental health in a question set which is designed for embedding in national census and surveys. Check out my latest infographic to find out more.