On Wednesday, January 25^th, 2012 the KTER Center’s Community of Practice on Employment Research sponsored the webcast—What Counts? Latest Disability Statistics from Federal Surveys and Resources.   The presentation by Dr. Andrew Houtenville, Research Director, Institute on Disability, Associate Professor at the University of New Hampshire, and NIDRR grantee provided an overview of the Third Annual Disability Statistics Compendium that was released on November 2^nd, 2011.

Dr. Houtenville discussed the Compendium’s design; the various topics covered; new time trends statistics added in the 2011 edition; patterns and trends in overall numbers of people with disability living in the community, employment rates of people with disabilities, unemployment trends, SSDI applications, vocational rehabilitation, and federal expenditures; potential uses the Compendium by researchers and policy makers; the possibility of adding more time-trend information based on statistics estimated by StatRRTC; and information on accessing the Compendium as well as a technical assistance available through a toll-free number.  The 2011 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium is a product of the NIDRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (StatsRRTC) at Hunter College, New York that provides statistics on people with disabilities and government programs that serve the disabilities population.  The data is compiled from federal sources and surveys on disability prevalence, population size, including break-downs by state and disability type, employment and earnings, education, health and health care coverage, rehabilitation, and participation in benefit programs.

Audio and the PowerPoint presentation slides from the January 25^th webinar will be available through KTER within the next week or so at www.kter.org/index.php/ktactivities/webcasts.  The 2011 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium is available for free through NARIC and the Compendium website.  The toll-free technical assistance number for the Compendium is 866/538-9521.

For more information on the following NIDRR-funded projects related to this presentation:

• Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (KTER Center)
  www.kter.org
• RRTC on Employment Policy and Measurement
  (Principle Investigator Dr. Houtenville, presenter)
  www.iod.unh.edu/Projects/epm_rrtc/project_description.aspx
• Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (StatsRRTC)
  www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/p-srrtc.cfm
  disabilitycompendium.org