Provided They Are Accessible: A Desk Review of Italian Statistical and Administrative Data on Persons with Disabilities
Fabio Sacchi
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) states that collecting data on these persons is essential to monitor their living conditions and evaluate the effective implementation of their rights. In Italy, the collection of data on persons with disabilities is carried out by different entities, among which ISTAT has particular importance. ISTAT publishes collected data on the Disabilità in cifre website. However, for the data collected to be used for monitoring actions, they need to be accessible, as affirmed by the UNCRPD. This paper, after reflecting on the concept of data accessibility, which much be considered not only technically but also semantically, aims to investigate whether the data published on the Disabilità in cifre website are technically and semantically accessible. The investigation was conducted through the desk review methodology, which is used in the field of statistical science to assess data quality parameters, including that of accessibility. Results showed that while the technical accessibility of published data is high, their semantic accessibility is rather limited, thus making it difficult, in our country, to use them for monitoring the living conditions of persons with disabilities as stated by the UNCRPD.
Keywords
Data, Accessibility, Metadata, Persons with disabilities, Desk review.
