The Disability Follow-up Survey

The Disability Follow-up to the 1996/97 Family Resources Survey (Grundy et al., 1999) was designed primarily to update information collected by the Survey of Disability in 1985-88 and to provide data on entitlement to state benefits. The survey was carried out by interview and self-reporting and was conducted with adults in domestic properties, not institutionalised care environment.

The results showed that an estimated 8 582 200 adults in Great Britain - 20% of the adult population - had a disability according to the definition used. 34% of these disabled people had mild levels of impairment (i.e. high capability), 45% had moderate impairment (medium capability) and 21% had severe impairment (low capability). It was also found that 48% of the disabled population were aged 65 or older and 29% were aged 75 years or more.

This survey specifies 13 capability scales of which 7 are particularly pertinent to product evaluation, namely:

Each of these scales is subdivided into different levels of impairment, ranging from 0 (fully able) through 0.5 (minimal impairment) to 13 (most severe impairment). Each scale been aligned to ensure that equal scores broadly relate to equivalent levels of capability, so a level 6 locomotion impairment has the same impact on quality of life as a level 6 vision impairment.