Google Motion Trends Disability Prevalence

Google’s Motion Chart (i.e. Trendalyzer ) allows for the visualization of data in 5 dimensions (x-axis, y-axis, time, size, color). We applied Google’s Motion Chart to our IDEA disability dataset, which allows to us visualize the relationships between the 13 eligibility categories, 50 states, and for the last 16 years (1992 to 2008). The trendalyzer technology was originally developed by the Gapminder Foundation, which makes extensive use of the technology to examine public datasets.

Please watch our brief video introduction and see the discussion and data descriptions below.

Discussion

Tech-Labs does not like to draw conclusions from our data or visualizations. We prefer to consider ourselves a research resource and leave the research to those more qualified. However, we have made the following preliminary visual observations:

1. Only 25 states make use of the Developmental Disability (DD) category which was introduced in 1997 and only applies to children 3 to 9 years old.
2. Only 20 states included ASD in the Autism eligibility category in 2007. Those states had an increased prevalence rate as outlined in the research paper below.
3. States NOT using the developmental delay category have an increased autism prevalence, mental retardation prevalence or combined. Image 3.
4. There might be a relationship between the DD prevalence and the inclusion of ASD in the autism eligibility category. Image 1
5. There does not visually look like there is a relationship between MR prevalence and the inclusion of AD in the autism eligibility category. Image 2.
6. Post 1997 there appears to be an inverse relationship between mental retardation prevalence and developmental delay prevalence.

However, we will leave the validation of these observations up to others more qualified.

Data Description

There are xxx data points load into the motion chart above. 10,400 of the data points (50 states x 13 eligibility categories x 16 years) are from prevalence values for children 8 years old from our IDEA disability dataset. The 50 extra data points are the “Autism Eligibility Criteria, 2007” which are from a research paper examining inter-state variation in special education criteria for autism services for the school 2007.

Prevalence Values: The prevalence values are for children 8 years old and calculated using live birth data from the CDC. We every well could have used an age grouping, but currently feel a specific age of 8 years is most appropriate. We could also have used public school enrollment or CDC population estimates as the denominator of the prevalence calculation. We would be happy to provide a different data set to load in the motion chart if someone thinks it would be better than what we have.

Autism Eligibility Criteria, 2007: We pulled the 2007 autism eligibility criteria data from one of our favorite research papers: "What Does it Mean to be Autistic?" by MacFarlane and Kanaya. MacFarlane and Kanaya found that those states that included ASD’s in either autism eligibility criteria had significantly higher autism prevalence than those states that do not include ASDs. Please keep in mind these researchers only examined the 2007 eligibility criteria. So you might want to stop the motion chart on 2007 when utilizing this data.