Introduction

Make the Call. Statistics are a powerful tool. The National Bureau of Economic Research tracks changes in the national gross domestic product, a key indicator of economic activity, to “make the call” as to whether the economy is in recession. On the first Friday of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the official unemployment rate to monitor the labor market. Each year during the second week of September, the Census Bureau publishes the official poverty rate and whether an increase or decrease in the poverty rate was detected. The Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention’s Health People program tracks health indicators over the course of each decade. The goal of the Annual Report on People with Disabilities in America is to track the progress of people with disabilities using key social and economic indicators and each make the call (for each indicator) as to whether an increase or decrease was detected.

Topics. The Annual Report will include many of the key indicators identified in a comprehensive 2008 study, Keeping Track: National Disability Status and Program Performance Indicators, conducted by the National Council on Disability (NCD). This NCD report used a systematic approach of stakeholder input to select indicators based on data availability and ability to address key areas of interest to stakeholders. The resulting indicators were in the following areas of interest: employment, educational attainment, health and health care, financial status and security, leisure recreation, personal relationships, and crime/safety. In the coming years, the Annual Report will add more of the NCD indicators in these areas, as well as indicators for which data has only recently become available.