Measuring impairments and disability

Measurement tools

In order to measure levels of disability, you need a measurement tool. Measurement tools may be a set of questions, a task or set of tasks for an individual to carry out, or a clinical examination. These tools allow for one or more of the following: categorisation of an individual as having a disability or not; measurement of the type or severity of the disability; measurement of the ways in which an impairment impacts on an individual's life; or diagnosis of the health condition leading to the impairment.

This section covers a selection of measurement tools, with a particular focus on widely used tools such as WHO-DAS, Activities of Daily Living and the Washington Group short set of questions on disability.