Census 2020
The 2020 Census is Vital for People with Disabilities
The 2020 Census is here, and it is important that people with disabilities and their families are counted.
Every 10 years, everyone in the United States is counted through the census. It is important that everyone is counted because the census data impacts many key things. Massachusetts received over 22 billion dollars for federal programs guided by data derived from the 2010 Census. But for every uncounted Massachusetts resident, several thousand dollars of funding is missed. People with disabilities make up more than a quarter of the entire US population and that is sorely underrepresented in reflective data. The more people we have counted, the more money Massachusetts receives.
A sampling of what funding includes:
- Medicaid / Medicare
- Transportation and Para-transit
- SNAP
- Section 8
- Head Start
- Title 1 Education Grants
If people with disabilities don’t get counted, or are under counted, money critical to our independence will be lost, and services and programs for people with disabilities can be cut. Census data is also used to determine how many representatives each state gets in the House of Representatives. The videos below help explain why people with disabilities being counted in the census is so important.
If you have questions or difficulties, contact BCIL’s Community Outreach and Advocacy Specialist here.
Your voice is important! BCIL encourages you to be counted!
Question and Answers about the Census
Click here Q & A Census 2020
Click here Census 2020 instructions
Census videos
English (from our friends at Access Living, Chicago, IL)
Spanish (from www.census.gov)