At the request of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Demographic Surveys Division (DSD), staff from the Center for Survey Measurement, the Demographic Surveys Division, and the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division cognitively pretested three supplements planned for the 2011 American Housing Survey: the Healthy Homes Module, the Home Accessibility Module, and the Mortgage Module.

Results of 40 cognitive interviews conducted in September and October, 2010, include the following: 1) respondents did not interpret the concept of swimming pool enclosure correctly, and included walls with doors that opened onto the pool enclosure. They also did not know in some cases whether the gate latch closed automatically; 2) the wheelchair accessibility questions caused problems for two reasons: a) there was a lo ng list of them, which got monotonous and repetitive for respondents who did not any wheelchair accessible features in their home; and b) many respondents were not familiar with the characteristics of wheelchair accessible features such as electrical outlets, electrical switches, and climate controls; and 3) respondents who had refinanced their homes were unsure about whether to report about their original mortgage or their refinanced mortgage in the mortgage section. As a result, many reported inconsistently – about their original mortgage in some questions, and about their refinanced mortgage in other questions.