Causes

Questions regarding determining the cause of disability have not been developed by the WG.  Nevertheless, any country wishing to collect such information should do so only after asking the WG-SS. Furthermore, it is recommended that countries that implement this approach should avoid embedding the causes after each domain as shown in the examples presented in Box 19.

Questions regarding disability causes should be asked when the need for such data relates to policy purposes. Furthermore, response categories for such questions should be initially tested before being included in a questionnaire. 

Generally, information on causes is used more for preventing disability than for purposes of inclusion or the achievement of the SDGs. Therefore, it is generally preferred to prioritize the available space within a questionnaire to the recommended WG extended domains in order to yield more accurate and extensive information on the prevalence of disability within a particular country.

Box 19. Avoid embedding the causes after each domain

Country example

Seeing: Difficulty. Reason.

Hearing: Difficulty. Reason.

Mobility: Difficulty. Reason.

Cognition: Difficulty. Reason.

Communicating: Difficulty. Reason.