Monitoring People with Disabilities: The Italian Experience

The aim of this article is to present the project “Information System on Disability”, carried out by ISTAT (Italian National Statistics Institute). The background context affecting its implementation is described, in terms of both the policies and the main information sources on disability available in Italy. The paper does not attempt to develop a new theoretical explanation of disability, but underlines the steps and actions that must be taken, and problems that must be overcome in building a statistical information system on disability able to satisfy the information needs of diverse users.