Counting Us Out: A Discussion of the OPCS Disability Surveys

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of the main findings of the first two OPCS reports on disability and a critique of the methodology employed. Whilst the first report highlights the systematic underestimation of the prevalence of disability which was enshrined in previous government research, it should by no means be interpreted as providing the ‘true’ figure. Such a project is an impossible one, since ‘disability’ is a social construct, and definitions dependent upon the interests, intentions and presuppositions of those with the power to define. As far as the severity scales are concerned, a wholly spurious ‘objectivity’ is identified. The second report, on financial circumstances, does implicitly provide official recognition that disability causes poverty. Because of the research methods employed, however, it fails even to approach an adequate quantification of the financial disadvantages experienced by disabled people. A critical understanding of the deficiencies of the OPCS surveys, in terms both of overall approach and of method, can provide a salutary example of how not to research issues of disability.