Review of 2021 Census Topics

Having up to date and meaningful data is critical for understanding the experiences of people with disabilities as well as informing policy development, service planning, and the development of outcome measures for the National Disability Strategy.

We recommend that questions based on the Washington Group Short Set of Questions on Disability, considered best practice internationally for identifying disabled people in population censuses, and conducted as a Supplementary Disability Survey in 2016, be included in the Australian census.
We recognise that these questions do not provide a comprehensive measure of disability, partly because they do not collect information about people with intellectual or psychological functioning difficulties, or young children; however it will provide greater comparison with international data sets, and allow for greater intersectionality of data to explore factors contributing to outcomes.
The Census Questions on Disability Endorsed by the Washington Group are as follows:
Introductory phrase:
The next questions ask about difficulties you may have doing certain activities because of a health problem:
Core Questions:
1. Do you have difficulty seeing, even if wearing glasses?
a. No - no difficulty
b. Yes – some difficulty
c. Yes – a lot of difficulty
d. Cannot do at all
2. Do you have difficulty hearing, even if using a hearing aid?
a. No- no difficulty
b. Yes – some difficulty
c. Yes – a lot of difficulty
d. Cannot do at all
3. Do you have difficulty walking or climbing steps?
a. No- no difficulty
b. Yes – some difficulty
c. Yes – a lot of difficulty
d. Cannot do at all
4. Do you have difficulty remembering or concentrating?
a. No – no difficulty
b. Yes – some difficulty
c. Yes – a lot of difficulty
d. Cannot do at all
Additional Questions:
5. Do you have difficulty (with self-care such as) washing all over or dressing?
a. No – no difficulty
b. Yes – some difficulty
c. Yes – a lot of difficulty
d. Cannot do at all
6. Using your usual (customary) language, do you have difficulty communicating, for example understanding or being understood?
a. No – no difficulty
b. Yes – some difficulty
c. Yes – a lot of difficulty
d. Cannot do at all

Disability affects everyone at some point in their lives and is of national importance.

The challenge will be in scoping the definition of 'disability' so that is more accurately answered.

Some groups may not consider their condition to be a 'disability' and may not respond to a question that is posed as such - e.g. people who are deaf. Therefore, work should be done to be as inclusive to people who have diverse circumstances that may not necessarily make them less independent.

The topic on need for assistance with core activities can be expanded to include a broader range of disability categories.

As mentioned previously - disability will affect everyone at some point in their lives- whether they develop a disability, care for a person with a disability or otherwise know someone with a disability. Having richer data sets can help us better prepare for our ageing population as well as providing better services to people with disabilities - such as through the NDIS.

We collect self-identified disability data at the City of Darebin through a Household Survey using a sample of 1000 households to get an understanding of a variety of characteristics and circumstances of our population. However, this data has limited use due to the limited scope of questions asked.