Status and Prospects: An International Review of the State of Intellectual Disability Surveillance
This research scientifically confirmed the widely acknowledged
position that people with intellectual disabilities are excluded
from many aspects of society worldwide. While there are some
differences in countries, both rich and poor countries do a poor
job of maintaining information about this population. Of 128
data-gathering tools evaluated across 12 countries, 66% included
information about general disability but only 27% specifically
addressed intellectual disability.
Originally designed to develop a broad-based index of common
characteristics and current status of people with ID, the study
concluded that this was not a realistic goal given the general lack
of data available. The research findings include specific
recommendations for improving data collection for each country
studied.
Separate reports were completed for each of the 12 countries
included in the research.