1 Disability Data From the American Co mmunity Survey: A Brief Examination of the Effects of a Qu estion Redesign in 2003  Sharon Stern and Matthew Brault  U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division  January 28, 2005  1. Introduction 1 In 2003, the Census Bureau introduced a change  to the disability items on the American  Community Survey (ACS) mail-back paper questionnaire. The intent of the new layout and skip  instructions was to reduce confusion among re spondents and thereby reduce potential erroneous reporting. This report contains the initial results of an analysis  describing the effects of the  change. The evidence presented suggests that it is  not possible to discer n which portion, if any,  of the difference between 2002 and 2003 disability es timates can be attributed to actual change  in the number or percentage of people with disabi lities. As a result, the Census Bureau will not  present any time-series data showing estimates  from 2002 and earlier w ith data from 2003 and  later for the affected items.   The objective of this short pape r is to describe the changes  in the questionnaire and the  effect on the published disability data. S ection 2 provides some background useful for  understanding the sensitivity of  questions on disability. The section reviews important elements  of the ACS data collection process involving differences between  mail-back paper questionnaires  and computer-assisted interviews (CAI). The sec tion also provides details  on previous research  suggesting that the paper questionnaire may be c onfusing to respondents and result in erroneous  reports of disability.   Section 3 presents the data from the 2003 AC S compared with previous years in the  context of the question change . The section shows data on th e percentage of people with  disabilities and their employment rates, focusing on the differences in rates by the mode of data  collection. Section 4 introduces topics for futurere search that, in addition to this paper, will add  to the understanding of the effects of the questionn aire change. Section 5 presents a summary of  the key findings.