• Difficulty in performing daily tasks may be classified as a form of disability in the coming census
• Disability will be dealt with differently as the attribute have been broken down into difficulties in doing universal life activities such as the five senses, communication and self-care
Do you have difficulty seeing, speaking in your most fluent language, climbing stairs and caring for yourself? You may be categorised as disabled during the census.
During the population count, the disability question will be handled differently this time round. Disability has been broken down into difficulties in doing universal life activities such as the five senses, communication and self-care.
In the 2009 census, enumerators asked heads of each household if there were any members with physical disability and they answered yes or no. But this year, the concept has been broadened to include functional difficulties in performing common tasks.
Vivian Nyarunda, a statistician from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, says the Washington Group Short Set of Questions on Disability in measuring functional difficulties will be used in the week-long census.
In this method, people will be asked if they have difficulties in walking, seeing, hearing, cognition, self-care and communication.
Self-care includes activities such as bathing, dressing and self-feeding among others.
According to the Washington Group on Disability Statistics website, the simplified questions targeting the functionality of the people in their daily lives was to help demystify disability, which is otherwise a complex concept.
"So while the WG Short Set questions by themselves explicitly address only limitations in undertaking basic activities, they are designed for analysis with other information in a way that incorporates the full bio-psychosocial model of disability," the site reads.
Speaking to the Star yesterday, Nyarunda said the agency's technical working group sought to broaden the concept of disability in the census because people have different difficulties in doing tasks but may not want to be outrightly categorised as disabled.
"The questionnaire is designed in a likert scale method so that the difficulties are put in levels such as most difficulty, less difficulty, no difficulty and so on," Nyarunda said.
"So it is the enumerator who will know, depending on the answers whether the person has what level of difficulty."
Nyarunda said this means that a person wearing glasses, having difficulty in climbing stairs, having speech or hearing problems or sleeping among other functionalities could be categorised in the disability group but of varied levels.
This method includes six questions on disability which are: Do you have difficulty seeing, even if wearing glasses? Do you have difficulty hearing, even if using a hearing aid? Do you have difficulty walking or climbing steps?
Others are; Do you have difficulty remembering or concentrating?, Do you have difficulty (with self-care such as) washing all over or dressing? and Do you have difficulty in using your usual language?
However, Nyarunda said the exercise will include a seventh question asking subjects whether they have albinism.
Each question has four response categories, which are read after each question. The response categories capture the full spectrum of functioning from mild to severe and the options are; No, no difficulty, Yes, some difficulty, Yes, a lot of difficulty, Cannot do it at all. The seventh question will, however, request a Yes or No answer.
Elizabeth Kamundia, a disability expert working with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights told the Star the approach in assessing disability in the national population counting exercise is progressive and that it will accommodate every form of disability people are living with.
"This approach does not take a diagnostic perspective but rather capturing disability is a continuum. It will help in fighting the stigma that people having disability struggle with," she said.