One voice for everybody

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Essl Foundation

Data that provide information about the living conditions of people with disabilities are essential information when political decision-making processes have to be taken. To develop such data, however, it is often necessary to conduct surveys. Barrier-free access is of utmost importance to make the life situation and problems of people with disabilities visible.



This pilot project under the Citizen Science Initiative was jointly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Research and Science (BMBFW) and the ESSL Foundation. In a collaboration of scientific research (NPO & SE Competence Center and ÖPIA) and practice (Statistics Austria and Caritas-Vienna), people with intellectual disabilities actively participate in the research process. The most important research question is: How can people with intellectual disabilities or learning difficulties be included in social statistics surveys on quality of life? Above all, the focus was on the possibility of including this target group in official social statistics surveys.



Currently, people with disabilities who live in institutions, as well as older people in long term care facilities, are excluded from the surveys.

However, inclusion in official statistics surveys also means that a standardized questionnaire consisting of the catalog of official statistics must be used in the survey.



The content of these questions should not be changed at all or only slightly. Thus, the comprehensibility of such questions becomes the focus. People with intellectual disabilities or learning difficulties are actively involved as experts in a "test group" within the framework of various working group meetings and also slip into the role of researchers in peer interviews.