Persons with disabilities tend to be unseen, unheard and uncounted. Increasingly in recent years, when they have been counted, definitions of “disability” and “persons with disabilities” that are used for collecting disability data have varied widely in the Asia-Pacific region. Taken together, data comparisons across countries are frequently unreliable. The Asia-Pacific region needs more accurate statistics on the population of persons with diverse disabilities and on their socioeconomic status. The adequacy of disability statistics would enable policymaking to be evidence-based to support the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities. The Decade is an opportunity to enhance data collection aimed at generating comparable disability statistics over time and across borders. It is crucial that baseline data for the Incheon Strategy indicators are made available to enable effective progress tracking towards the achievement of goals and targets.
Target 8.A
Produce and disseminate reliable and internationally comparable disability statistics in formats that are accessible by persons with disabilities
Target 8.B
Establish reliable disability statistics by the midpoint of the Decade, 2017, as the source for tracking progress towards the achievement of the goals and targets in the Incheon Strategy
Indicators for tracking progress
Core indicators
- 8.1. Disability prevalence based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) by age, sex, race and socioeconomic status
- 8.2. Number of Governments in the Asia-Pacific region that have established, by 2017, baseline data for tracking progress towards achievement of the Incheon goals and targets
- 8.3. Availability of disaggregated data on women and girls with disabilities in mainstream development programmes and government services, including health, and sexual and reproductive health, programmes