SIGNIFICANT OTHER: The availability of the “others” demographic data not only provides a more realistic picture of our contemporary society, but it gives us the opportunity to recognize that even among these smaller groupings there are youngsters (and the not so young) with disabilities.

national numbers and their impact on their families and the general society in such terms that are beyond the comprehension of most individuals; e.g. hundreds of millions and billions of dollars of costs just seem like the number of snowflakes in the middle of a storm to people who are clipping coupons to make ends meet. To some degree we break these numbers down in terms of the traditional use of race/ethnicity partings. 

The availability of the “others” demographic data not only provides a more realistic picture of our contemporary society, but it gives us the opportunity to recognize that even among these smaller groupings there are youngsters (and the not so young) with disabilities. For example, nationally and in the three largest population states, there are thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands children with disabilities in one or more of the traditional and “other” categories. We can now review the number of youngsters with disabilities in the smallest population state (Wyoming, with a population of 563,000 in the last census3), including 4,230 white- non-Hispanic children, 270 youngsters of two or more races, and 800 Hispanic children. (see Table 1) Note: These data are available from the Census Bureau for the younger and older