American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a new initiative of the Bureau of the Census, designed to eventually replace the long-form decennial census. The design of the survey closely resembles the decennial census, with self-administration of mail-delivered questionnaires. The sample consists of a rolling sample of addresses, with approximately 3 million households sampled annually. At present, the questions on disability replicate those included in the long form of the year 2000 decennial census. Drawing on the Canadian experience in conducting the Health and Activity Limitation Surveys (HALS), the ACS could be used as a first-stage screening instrument for the identification of individuals likely to be impaired or disabled; follow-up, in-depth interviews could be targeted at those individual identified via screening questions in the ACS as well as a subsample of those not identified as disabled, so as to capture the false negatives via the longer instrument.

Survey of Income and Program Participation SIPP is a multipanel longitudinal survey of adults, that measures their economic and demographic characteristics. Participants are interviewed once every 4 months; the duration of each panel ranges from 2.5 to 4 years. The questionnaire for the SIPP includes a core set of questions administered every wave and a set of topical modules, which are administered periodically. One of the topical modules that has been administered in previous panels concerns disability and functional limitations. The redesigned topical module administered in 1997 and 1999 covered a broad range of questions concerning disability and functional limitations, including sensory limitations, use of mobility aids, ADLs, IADLs, and upper- and lower-body functional limitations.

National Crime Victimization Survey As a result of Public Law 105-301, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is required to produce victimization rates by developmental disability status beginning in the year 2003. To meet this requirement, BJS has begun to develop and test a 20-question model dealing with health conditions, impairments, and disabilities, covering a broad range of disabilities, not just developmental disabilities. The questions have undergone testing in a cognitive laboratory and will be field-tested this spring among a population of persons with developmental disabilities in California. These questions would be added to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), a rotating panel design survey in which participants are interviewed every 6 months over a 3.5-year period. Similar to the design of the Current Population Survey, the sample unit for the NCVS is the housing unit; participants who move during the life of