As a result of long-standing discrimination across multiple domains—such as education, labor markets, housing, and medical access—people with disabilities are twice as likely as nondisabled people to live in poverty. Local policymakers need data that include their experiences to craft policies that support disabled people’s upward mobility from poverty.
Accessing this data can be challenging, but the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Data Dashboard provides disaggregation by disability for two predictors of upward mobility: employment opportunities and preparation for college. In a new blog post, Urban researchers write that local leaders can help further bridge the gap in disability data by:
- Identifying and leveraging existing federal, state, and local data sources;
- Partnering with community organizations, like service providers, to help with original data collection; and
- Using tools like focus groups and data interactives to center disabled community members in data collection.
Read the blog post to learn more about how resources from the Upward Mobility Initiative can help local leaders gather and understand disability data. And to receive the latest research from the initiative, register for updates.
If you have questions about this work, pleasee-mail ExternalAffairs@news.urban.org .