Special Olympics is an active collaborator in the efforts to strengthen or supplement existing frameworks for measuring disability. To assess the extent to which national surveillance questions capture the population with intellectual disabilities, in 2022 Special Olympics included WG-SS questions in Special Olympics surveys administered alongside a self-identification question and to a population known to have intellectual disabilities. Analyses revealed that Special Olympics athletes with intellectual disabilities attest to a combination of functional limitations.
Special Olympics is also part of a CDC-led collaborative team on a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (PCORTF)-funded project aimed at enhancing the identification of intellectual and developmental disabilities in point-of-care settings. Special Olympics athletes with intellectual disabilities will be recruited to participate in qualitative interviews to help create a functional disability demographic checklist. By developing a demographic checklist based on the ACS-6 and/or WG-SS questions, researchers will be able to study person-centered health outcomes linked to services, supports, and interventions aimed at improving the overall health and well-being of individuals with intellectual disabilities.