To be peed off that the Census doesn’t ask about disability?

[RickiTarr]

It asks about “health conditions” but I don’t regard myself as ill, just disabled.

Anyone else?

@DottyWott

Yes! My son is autistic but not ill. One of many examples of how you can be disabled and not have a health condition

My autistic DD answered yes to having a health condition and it affecting her a lot in day to day life. My dyslexic kid was the same. It’s very subjective so I let them answer how they felt.

The government defines disability as “a physical or mental impairment that has a 'substantial' and 'long-term' negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.” This can include long term health issues. It’s pretty vague. It would have been a great opportunity to better understand what the conditions are.

I would agree with this and this is the same way they have addressed the gender issue.

So you’re agreeing with @BungleandGeorge that there should be a question about disability?

I think what people have responded to in the OP is the insinuation that people with disabilities have been ignored rather than the idea that the question could be tweaked slightly.

I wasn’t insinuating that we had been ignored. I wasn’t insinuating anything. I said I was irritated not to have been asked about disability. It is literally in the thread title.

You seem to be agreeing with me and disagreeing with me at the same time.

@korawick12345

My objection is that self defining makes a mockery of the whole thing! The census works because we believe people give information in good faith and that is much easier for factual questions with a clear answer. As soon as you start adding in elements of self determined 'opinion' the data will become much less useful. Just my view and I have no doubt other will disagree. I just don't think the census is the forum for people to have their self defined status validated.

The whole census works on self reporting.

That is literally what the census is.

Quite a number of health conditions are self defined too.

@jellybellybanana

How is a disability not a health condition or problem? The quibbling over the wording of every question is frankly ridiculous.

Because people who share a condition are not homogenous. There are people who don't regard some disabilities as a health problem and might even query the use of 'disability' to describe (say) deafness.

Ricki - i am agreeing and disagreeing at the same time! I agree that an additional question about disability would be useful but i disagree with your characterisation in the thread title that the census doesn't ask about disability as I believe it does!

@korawick12345 someone wrote a good article a couple of years ago summarising how and why we moved towards thinking that people should be allowed to decide for themselves what their ethnicity & nationality were on the census.

I will try to dig it out for you later or find something similar and if I find it I’ll post it here.

Yes! My son is autistic but not ill. One of many examples of how you can be disabled and not have a health condition

You can have a health condition without being ill, which is why the question is a condition OR illness.

My son is not ill, he does have a health condition and is disabled.

Health condition does not need to equal illness.

@korawick12345

Ricki - i am agreeing and disagreeing at the same time! I agree that an additional question about disability would be useful but i disagree with your characterisation in the thread title that the census doesn't ask about disability as I believe it does!

Okay. Fair enough!

This kind of nitpicky shite is what makes the gen. pop. eyeroll at groups advocating for their rights and for their needs to be met.

Just tick yes and move on FFS. No matter how they describe it, someone's going to feel it doesn't precisely match the way they like to think of themselves — this kind of obsessing over tiny details of nuance just makes us as disabled people/people with long-term conditions appear overly touchy, and like whatever people do, we'll never be happy, so why bother trying?

Disability is self defined though, if someone asked me if I had a disability I would say no, yet I have type one diabetes, a mental health condition and I’ve had a partial splenectomy. If I had been asked on the census if I was disabled I would have said no.

When asked if I had a health condition I said yes because that is factual.

@SimonJT

Disability is self defined though, if someone asked me if I had a disability I would say no, yet I have type one diabetes, a mental health condition and I’ve had a partial splenectomy. If I had been asked on the census if I was disabled I would have said no.

When asked if I had a health condition I said yes because that is factual.

Exactly @SimonJT

Both questions need to be in there.

I’ve got to dash off but if anyone is interested this is the official document discussing how a methodology for ethnicity questions (as opposed to race) is as arrived at:-

<a class="break-all" href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160129000653/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/measuring-equality/equality/measuring-equality--a-guide/ethnic-group-statistics--a-guide-for-the-collection-and-classification-of-ethnicity-data.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160129000653/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/measuring-equality/equality/measuring-equality--a-guide/ethnic-group-statistics--a-guide-for-the-collection-and-classification-of-ethnicity-data.pdf

It is my understanding that this is the last time that there is likely to be a census as the gov is able to get information from other sources (which is a whole other debate....). As it's used to plan services, I presume they asked the questions to obtain the answers they need.

I found the wording of the question quite helpful, as DD is under community paeds as potentially having ASD but had yet to receive a DX. What she does have is a truckload of sensory issues and the supporting notes made it very clear that these were included.

I am disabled, a blue badge holder and quite sick and took the health condition question to mean about this.

PP are very correct, being disabled really is self defined. I know people less able bodied than I am who do not define themselves as disabled. There are only a few conditions where you are automatically classed as being disabled, for the rest you unfortunately have to prove that you are.

I agree.
I said this under the follow up form - there is a big difference to saying yes because say you are a bit deaf and need hearing aids, and say being treated for a severe illness like cancer. You would think for meaningful health planning they would need this sort of information.

We also queried the different options for health. MIL is in her 90s - how do we regard the health of someone that age? For someone aged 20 her health would be poor, for someone getting on for 100 it could count as good.

You would think for meaningful health planning they would need this sort of information

For meaningful health planning you do not use the census! There are a myriad of sources of relevant information, the census is not designed for that, and not used for that.

I'd rather the census was honest, and clearly showed no one gives two shits about the disabled, than had some faux "we're listening" vibe that makes the able feel good about themselves.

Bitter ? You bet.

Twisted ? Getting there.

@MsFogi

It is truly incredible - it asks about "gender identity" but not disability!!!!

Yes. It clearly shows what the Govt prioritises

I feel that they could have make the illness/disability bit clearer.

It could have been a great oppertunity to find out if physical and mental health conditions in the general population are life long or developed later and if there was any correlation with different types and housing/education.

Does poor education and/or housing cause
physical and/or mental health conditions or do families end up in poor housing because they needed to drop out of work due to those conditions?

I thought this was odd and really wrestled with how to answer. I have a long term health condition that has absolutely zero impact on my life day to day. I didn't know whether to put yes or no, and in the end I put yes as following the question literally then yes I do have a health condition expected to last more than 12 months.

I am not disabled, and it's offensive to people who are disabled for me to be in the same category. I can't imagine it provides good data either?

Hadn't thought, but yes it absolutely should have asked about disability if it asked about gender. Mean isn't the whole point about the census that it helps plan future services?
Bonkers.

For meaningful health planning you do not use the census!

In which case, why ask? Bear in mind that the information which came with the code says:

Organisations such as local authorities and charities use the census information to understand the services we all need, including transport, education and healthcare.

Educational needs could be planned for going by the age of children in the household. We were also asked about how many cars we had access to, which could cover transport (maybe), but the health one was decidedly woolly and might have been better left out.

I think Yabu. The health condition question is where you put disabilities. I put that my health was very good but that I had a health condition that limited my activities (which I think is the legal definition of a disability)

Perhaps they didn't ask about disability because they don't need to know the answer to that question.

There are lots of other questions not in the census too. We used to be asked how many bathrooms and toilets we had, and whether they were inside or outside.