Litigation

Finding statistics on disabilities

By Michael Kaplen

Thanks to the special education law blog for information on where to find statistics that are important in the disability arena.  An important resource that provides a wealth of disability related statistics is published by the Rehabilitation Research & Training Center on Disability Statistics & Demographics.  They have published a 160 page report that has statistics on the disabilities, education and employment issues. 

Some of the interesting and important information on the prevalence of disabilities in the school system and children receiving services under IDEA: 

2.6 Million specific learning disability 43.3%
1.1 Million speech/language impairment 19.2%
624,000 other health impairment 10.6%
487,000 mental retardation 8.3%
438,000 emotional disturbance 7.4%
257,000 autism 4.3%
131,000 multiple disabilities 2.2%
88,000 developmental delay 1.5%
71,000 hearing impairment 1.2%
60,000 orthopedic impairment 1.0%
26,000 visual impairment 0.4%
24,000 traumatic brain injury 0.4%
1,300 deaf/blindness 0.02%

You can download the entire disability report by clicking here.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on October 31, 2009 (boomark / email).