Using the National Survey on Health and Disability Panel to Document the COVID-19 Pandemic Experiences of Working-Age Americans with Disabilities

This project builds upon the success of the existing National Survey on Health and Disability (NSHD) and develops partnerships with other NIDILRR-funded projects to develop survey questions, analyze data using appropriate methods, and assure activities are conducted in a rigorous and timely fashion. Use of the well-established NSHD provides the opportunity for collecting longitudinal, pre- and post-pandemic, data.

Objectives include:

1. Develop, pilot, and administer the NSHD with COVID-19 supplement with the established NSHD sample and analyze using appropriate methods, with comparisons to the general population;
2. Conduct structured interviews with selected NSHD participants to fully understand a variety of pandemic experiences across diverse racial/ethnic, sexual, gender, geographic, age, employment, and disability groups;
3. Conduct a call for proposals for additional COVID-19-related questions from other NIDILRR researchers; and
4. Administer the NSHD with COVID-19 supplement again, including questions from other NIDILRR researchers, addressing issues identified via Year 2 interviews, and new pandemic-related issues as they arise.

Findings will be used to develop policy briefs, consumer resources, scholarly journal articles, and specific policy and practice recommendations to address identified pandemic-related issues that affect the health and function, employment, and/or community living of Americans with disabilities. Anticipated outcomes of project activities include increased knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 and improved policies and practices.