The 2000 Census Data on Disability: Policy Implications for Rhode Island

Roger Avery, Brown University
Dennis Hogan, Brown University

The 2000 Census data on the disability of persons in Rhode Island are used to investigate geographic variations in disability and the burden of disability among cities and towns. The study documents, for each place, the number and proportion of children, adults, and persons of old age with disability. Substantial geographic variations are found in disability, but the patterning of these variations are different for each age group. Certain towns with low proportions disabled and high income have a strong carrying capacity for the care of the disabled; other places have much lower capacity. These differences have implications for state or local funding of programs for the disabled, especially children. Census tract data and multiple regression methods for the analysis of geographic data are used to examine a variety of place characteristics (%minority, %immigrant, %language isolation, %poor, %with less than high school education, %rural) on disability, and physical disability.