Handicap Quantification (CHART)

Handicap quantification is the approach to measuring long-term rehabilitation outcomes at the level of social roles and participation, implemented in the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique developed by Whiteneck and colleagues in 1992. Where earlier outcome measures captured impairment or disability — what is wrong with the body or what activities a person can perform — this method targets handicap in the sense of the World Health Organization's older ICIDH classification: the disadvantage a person experiences in fulfilling normal social roles. It operationalizes the ICIDH handicap dimensions of physical independence, mobility, occupation, social integration, and economic self-sufficiency into objective, behaviorally anchored indicators rather than subjective ratings. Each dimension is scored on a scale to 100, with 100 representing role performance equivalent to that of a person without disability, and the dimension scores are summed into a total. The instrument was designed specifically to detect outcomes that matter for community living, such as employment, mobility, and social contact, which lower-level measures miss.