About the Authors and Editors

Barbara M. Altman is a sociologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Retired from the National Center for Health Statistics, she currently serves as a consultant on disability statistics. She has been involved with the work of the Washington Group, an international group working on developing international measures of disability under the auspices of the United Nations, since its inception. She also co-directed the inter-agency committee which developed the questions on disability currently used in the American Community Survey questions and adopted by other federal agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Her disability research interests focus primarily on disability definition and measurement, access and utilization of health care services by persons with disabilities, and disability among minority groups, particularly Native Americans. She is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and federal publications on disability topics.