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The 1996/97 Family Resources Survey was commissioned by the UK government to provide statistics about households in Great Britain. In the same years, the Disability Follow-up to the Family Resources Survey was performed in order to help plan welfare support for disabled people.

People were selected for the Disability Follow-up Survey if they met certain criteria, such as being in receipt of incapacity benefit. Approximately 7500 participants were asked up to 300 questions regarding whether they were able to perform certain tasks such as

"Can you see well enough to read a newspaper headline?"

The results were collated to provide estimates for the national prevalence of disability. This survey is the most recent to consider all seven capability categories, and is therefore the only source suitable for considering multiple capability losses. According to the definition used in the survey, 17.8% of the GB adult population have less than full ability in one or more categories. The GB adult population was 45.6 million people at the time of the survey.

The following pages explore further details of the disability survey, followed by the prevalence data and definitions of full ability for: Sensory capabilities, Cognitive capabilities, and Motor capabilities.