Universal Design for Measurement: Centering the Experiences of Individuals With Disabilities Within Health Measurement Research

Abstract

People with disabilities comprise roughly 25% of the U.S. adult population yet remain underrepresented in mainstream public health and evaluation research. The lack of measures of common constructs that are validated in but not specific to this population may impede their inclusion. This article describes the use of Universal Design for Measurement (UDM), a novel method for developing self-report measurement instruments validated among broad populations to minimize the need for scale adaptation. We applied UDM to the development and content validation of a new body image scale. We assessed content validity by surveying subject matter experts (SMEs) and conducted a Delphi panel study to assess consensus about scale items among community women with (n = 18) and without (n = 15) disabilities. Most scale items were found acceptable by SMEs and community women. The Delphi panel study was useful toward evaluating consensus about scale items among women with and without disabilities. Findings support the use of UDM in developing inclusive and psychometrically sound measurement scales to ultimately facilitate the full inclusion of people with disabilities within health research.