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Recent public policy in the United Statesconcerning disability has focused onimproving the socioeconomic conditionsfor people with disabilities. Increasingaccess to employment opportunities byreducing discrimination and providingpublic services are the centerpieces of the New Freedom Initiative, whichrenewed the government’s commitmentto the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).
1
For years, the ADA hasmandated that people with disabilities beafforded legal protections and providedwith essential public services. In additionto these provisions, the ADA provides adefinition for people with disabilities, inpart, as those who have “a physical ormental impairment that substantially lim-its one or more major life activities.”
2
Other federal laws that offer guidance onissues affecting people with disabilitiesinclude the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,the Individuals With DisabilitiesEducation Act, the Fair HousingAmendments Act of 1988, and theTelecommunications Act of 1996.
3
In order to assist governmental agenciesand advocacy and research organizationsthat monitor the efficacy of these laws,programs, and policies, as well as thepublic at large, this report provides esti-mates of the socioeconomic characteris-tics of people with disabilities. In addition,since many of the programs and policiestarget specific groups, this report pro-vides estimates for different categories of disability—from specific activity limita-tions to the broad category of “with adisability.” This report is an update of 
Americans With Disabilities: 2002 
, whichpresented similar estimates of disability.
4
As such, this report includes some com-parisons of prevalence estimates betweenthe two reports.The Survey of Income and ProgramParticipation (SIPP), through its supple-mental questionnaires on adult and childfunctional limitations, asks questionsabout the ability of respondents to per-form functional and participatory activi-ties. When a respondent indicates havingdifficulty performing an activity, a follow-up question is usually asked to deter-mine the severity of the limitation. Theresponses to these and other relatedquestions are used to develop two over-all measures of disability—severe disabil-ity and nonsevere disability—describedin Figure 1. Throughout this report,these terms will be used to allow analy-sis of subsets of people with disabilities.The estimates shown in this report usedata collected from June throughSeptember 2005 during the fifth inter-view of the 2004 SIPP panel. The SIPPprovides estimates representative of thecivilian noninstitutionalized populationliving in the United States (the population
U S C E N S U S B U R E A U
Helping You Make Informed Decisions 
U.S.Department of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Administration
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
Issued December 2008
P70-117
Americans With Disabilities: 2005
CurrentPopulationReports
ByMatthew W. Brault
Household Economic Studies 
1
Community-Based Alternatives for Individuals With Disabilities 
, Exec. Order No. 13217, June 18,2001.
2
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, 42U.S.C. §12102(2)(A).
3
A Guide to Disability Rights Laws: September 2005 
, available at <www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/cguide.htm>, describes the federal laws that specifi-cally address the interests of people with disabilities.
4
Erika Steinmetz,
Americans With Disabilities: 2002 
, Current Population Reports, P70-107, U.S.Census Bureau, Washington, DC. 2006. See<www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p70-107.pdf>.
 
2
U.S. Census Bureau
 Under 3 3 to
5
6 to 141
5
andoverTypes of disabilitiesAge
Used a wheelchair, a cane, cr
u
tches, or a walkerHad diffic
u
lty perfor
m
ing one or
m
ore f 
u
nctional activities(seeing, hearing, speaking, lifting/carrying,
u
sing stairs, walking,or grasping s
m
all objects)Unable to perfor
m
or needed help to perfor
m
one or
m
ore of the
u
nctional activitiesHad diffic
u
lty with one or
m
ore activities of daily living (ADLs), whichincl
u
des getting aro
u
nd inside the ho
m
e, getting in or o
u
t of bed ora chair, bathing, dressing, eating, and toiletingUnable to perfor
m
or needed help to perfor
m
one or
m
ore ADLsHad diffic
u
lty with one or
m
ore instr
um
ental activities of daily living(IADLs), which incl
u
des going o
u
tside the ho
m
e, keeping track of 
m
oney and bills, preparing
m
eals, doing light ho
u
sework, takingprescription
m
edicines in the right a
m
o
u
nt at the right ti
m
e, and
u
sing the telephoneUnable to perfor
m
or needed help to perfor
m
one or
m
ore IADLsHad one or
m
ore specified conditions: a learning disability or so
m
eother type of 
m
ental or e
m
otional conditionHad one or
m
ore specified conditions:
m
ental retardation or anotherdevelop
m
ental disability, or Alzhei
m
er's diseaseHad any other
m
ental or e
m
otional condition that serio
u
sly interferedwith everyday activitiesHad a condition that li
m
ited the ability to work aro
u
nd the ho
u
se or
m
ade it diffic
u
lt to re
m
ain e
m
ployedHad one or
m
ore specified conditions: a
u
tis
m
, cerebral palsy,
m
entalretardation, or another develop
m
ental disabilityHad diffic
u
lty perfor
m
ing one or
m
ore f 
u
nctional activities (seeing,hearing, speaking, walking, r
u
nning, or taking part in sports)Unable to perfor
m
or needed help to perfor
m
one or
m
ore of the
u
nctional activitiesDevelop
m
ental delayDiffic
u
lty walking, r
u
nning, or playingDiffic
u
lty
m
oving ar
m
s or legs
= Person is defined as having a nonsevere disability= Person is defined as having a severe disability
Fig
u
re 1.
Definition of Disability, Functional Limitations, Activities of Daily Living (ADLs),and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)
A person has a disability if they have either a or
Note: The concepts and
m
ethods
u
sed to define
disability,
ADLs, or IADLs are not
u
niq
u
e to this report. The definitions for ADLs andIADLs are consistent with those
u
sed by other agencies, incl
u
ding the Medicare C
u
rrent Beneficiary S
u
rvey and the National HealthInterview S
u
rvey. See
Related Materials 
and Appendix A,
Background on the Concept of Disability in Four National Household Surveys 
,for
m
ore details abo
u
t the q
u
estionnaire or definitions of disability.
 
universe), meaning that the disabil-ity statuses of people living in insti-tutional group quarters, such asnursing homes, are not included inthis report.About 49.4 percent of people aged5 and over living in institutionalgroup quarters reported a disabilityin the 2006 American CommunitySurvey (ACS).
5
As demonstrated inthe ACS, when the institutionalizedpopulation is included in the popu-lation universe, the estimate of dis-ability prevalence was 15.7 percent,0.6 percentage points higher thanthe civilian noninstitutionalizedpopulation at 15.1 percent. Assuch, had this population beenincluded in this report, estimates of disability prevalence may havebeen higher.
HIGHLIGHTS
6
Of the 291.1 million people inthe population in 2005, 54.4million (18.7 percent) had somelevel of disability and 35.0million (12.0 percent) had asevere disability (Table 1).
7
Of people 6 years and older, 11.0million people (4.1 percent)needed personal assistance withone or more activities of daily liv-ing (ADLs) or instrumental activi-ties of daily living (IADLs).Among the population 15 yearsand older, 7.8 million people(3.4 percent) had difficulty see-ing words or letters in ordinarynewspaper print, and 1.8 millionof these people reported beingunable to see.
U.S. Census Bureau
3Table1.
SelectedDisabilityMeasuresbySelectedAgeGroups:2005
(Numbers in thousands)CategoryegatnecrePrebmuN Estimate90-percentC.I. (
±
)
1
Estimate90-percentC.I. (
±
)
1
All ages .. ................................... 291,099 497 100.0 (X)
With a disability ...................................... 54,430 936 18.7 0.3Severe disability .................................... 34,953 779 12.0 0.3
Aged 6 and older .................................... 266,752 803 100.0 (X)
Needed personal assistance with an ADL or IADL ........ 10,999 456 4.1 0.2
Aged 15 and older ................................... 230,391 1,047 100.0 (X)
With a disability ...................................... 49,073 898 21.3 0.4Severe disability .................................... 32,776 757 14.2 0.3Difficulty seeing ... ................................... 7,794 386 3.4 0.2Severe difficulty seeing .............................. 1,783 186 0.8 0.1Difficulty hearing ...................................... 7,809 386 3.4 0.2Severe difficulty hearing ............................. 992 139 0.4 0.1
Aged 21 to 64........................................ 170,349 1,212 100.0 (X)
With a disability ...................................... 28,145 708 16.5 0.4Employed .......................................... 12,836 491 45.6 1.3Nonsevere disability ................................. 9,435 423 5.5 0.2Employed . ....................................... 7,099 369 75.2 2.0Severe disability .................................... 18,710 587 11.0 0.3Employed . ....................................... 5,737 332 30.7 1.5No disability . ......................................... 142,204 1,219 83.5 0.4Employed .......................................... 118,702 1,191 83.5 0.4
Aged 65 and older ................................... 35,028 780 100.0 (X)
With a disability ...................................... 18,133 578 51.8 1.2Severe disability .................................... 12,943 493 36.9 1.1
(X) Not applicable.
1
A 90-percent confidence interval is a measure of an estimate’s variability. The larger the confidence interval in relation to the size of the estimate, the lessreliable the estimate. For further information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including standard errors and confidence intervals, go to<www.census.gov/sipp/sourceac/S&A04W1toW7(S&A-7).pdf>.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Income and Program Participation, June–September 2005.
5
Matthew Brault,
Disability Status and theCharacteristics of People in Group Quarters: ABrief Analysis of Disability Prevalence Among the Civilian Noninstitutionalized and Total Populations in the American Community Survey 
, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington,DC, 2008.
6
The estimates in this report (which maybe shown in text, figures, and tables) arebased on responses from a sample of thepopulation and may differ from the actual val-ues because of sampling variability or otherfactors. As a result, apparent differencesbetween the estimates of two or more groupsmay not be statistically significant. All com-parative statements have undergone statisti-cal testing and are significant at the 90-per-cent confidence level unless otherwise noted.
7
In this report, the term “population”always refers to the civilian noninstitutional-ized population. See
Source and Accuracy 
for more information.
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