Promoting Opportunity Demonstration: Using Web Surveys for People with Disabilities
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Promoting Opportunity Demonstration: Using Web Surveys for People with Disabilities

Published: Nov 21, 2021
Publisher: Mathematica
Health Disability Economic Well Being and Income Support Federal Research and Evaluation Surveys and Data Collection
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Associated Project

Promoting Opportunity Demonstration (POD) Evaluation

Time frame: 2017–2022

Prepared for:

Social Security Administration

Key Findings
  • About two-thirds of POD respondents used the web to complete the surveys.
  • More beneficiaries completed the survey online than over the phone in every demographic and impairment group studied.
  • Nearly all beneficiaries answered all questions in both the web and phone surveys.
  • Web surveys, particularly short surveys, offer SSA a valuable option for research and operational data collection. Web surveys may provide advantages to beneficiaries in terms of convenience in filling in the forms and to SSA in terms of saving resources.

Congress directed the Social Security Administration (SSA) to test alternatives to current Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program rules in the Promoting Opportunity Demonstration (POD).

The survey data collection efforts for POD offered an opportunity to assess the use of web options for a large sample of SSDI beneficiaries.

We conducted two rounds of follow-up surveys with web and phone options for survey completion, with both including over 4,000 sample respondents.

Our analysis provides insights into using web surveys for a large sample to inform other data collection efforts involving disability beneficiaries.

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