Disability service providers, advocates, and researchers rely on data. However, accessing rural disability data has been challenging. RTC:Rural developed Disability Counts to improve access to rural data via interactive maps and a data lookup tool. Disability Counts users can:

• Explore general disability rates
• Zoom in on rural areas, states, and regions of the United States
• Search across disability-focused indicators such as employment and poverty
• Show where people with disabilities may be living, such as high-risk congregate settings
• Connect people with additional resources and support, such as emergency planning and response
• Help users develop and download data for advocacy, grant writing, and reporting

“The Kentucky Statewide Independent Living Council is using the Disability Counts dashboard to access county-level disability data. The dashboard is valuable for us because it gathers county-level data in a convenient place and enables us to research the disability populations in the service areas of our state’s Centers for Independent Living. This information will be used in our State Plan, in our annual federal reports, and wherever else we can, to demonstrate a need for additional resources for people with disabilities in Kentucky.”

Ester Ratajeski, member of the Kentucky State Independent Living Council

 Contact:        Lillie Greiman