11 minutes
Activity is not outcome Learn to tell what the agency did from what changed for people, and rewrite the measures that confuse the two.
What you’ll be able to do Distinguish activity measures from outcome measures and rewrite an activity measure as an outcome that a disabled person would recognize. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: As the assistant commissioner receiving this report, what do you conclude? Document a next step for Activity is not outcome: Take the three measures your area reports most often on disability inclusion and write, for each, what changed for people if the number moved. If you cannot, the measure is activity. What was done, and what changed Most reporting on disability inclusion counts what the organization did: trainings delivered, policies adopted, groups formed, events held, audits completed. These are activities. They are easy to count, they are within the organization’s control, and they feel like progress. None of them tells you whether a blind applicant can now complete the form, whether an employee got an accommodation before the project she needed it for ended, or whether a Deaf resident could follow the hearing about her services.
An outcome measure describes what changed for people. Accommodation time from request to delivery fell from eight weeks to two. The share of intake forms completed online without staff assistance rose among screen-reader users. Barrier reports about the benefits portal dropped after the redesign and stayed down. Disabled employees’ reported sense of belonging moved toward the agency average. These are harder to get, and they are the only measures that tell a leader whether the activities were worth doing.
Activities are not worthless. They become leading indicators when the link to an outcome has been checked: if testing before release reliably reduces barrier reports, then the testing rate is a leading indicator worth watching. The failure is reporting activities as if they were results. A simple test catches it: if this number moved, what changed for a disabled person? If the answer is “nothing yet,” you are looking at activity.
Activity, leading indicator, outcome, or not appropriate? Number of accessibility awareness sessions held.
Choose a category Activity Leading indicator Outcome Not appropriate Share of new public content tested with assistive technology before release.
Choose a category Activity Leading indicator Outcome Not appropriate Median days from accommodation request to delivery, in aggregate.
Choose a category Activity Leading indicator Outcome Not appropriate Each employee’s individual score on an inclusion behavior rating.
Choose a category Activity Leading indicator Outcome Not appropriate Barrier reports about the benefits portal per thousand applications, before and after redesign.
Choose a category Activity Leading indicator Outcome Not appropriate Share of supervisors who have completed accommodation-process training.
Choose a category Activity Leading indicator Outcome Not appropriate Check matches Reset Ask what changed for people What you can change You control whether a report of activities is accepted as a report of results.
What to watch for Do not praise a progress summary of completions and launches. Do not let the one outcome measure in the room be discounted because it is uncomfortable.
Your next step At your next review, ask of each measure: if this moved, what changed for a disabled employee or participant? Keep the measures that have an answer.
Rewriting activity as outcome “Accommodation policy adopted”
Outcome: median days from request to delivery, in aggregate, against a target; share of requests with interim access provided while open.
“Website audit completed”
Outcome: blocking defects found by the audit that are now closed and retested; barrier reports about the site before and after.
“Manager training delivered”
Leading indicator: share of supervisors trained. Outcome: accommodation timelines and disabled employees’ reported experience of their manager, in aggregate.
“Accessible meeting standard issued”
Outcome: share of public meetings with captions on and materials sent in advance, and participation and satisfaction among disabled attendees.
“Employee resource group launched”
Outcome: the recommendations the group made, what happened to each, and whether belonging among disabled employees moved toward the agency average.
Every year the report said the division had trained everyone and adopted a policy. Every year my accommodation still took two months. I could not tell you which of those two facts leadership was looking at, but it was not mine.
Composite staff perspective, illustrative Carry this forward An activity measure counts what the agency did; an outcome measure describes what changed for people. Most inclusion progress summaries are all activity.
Activity measures are useful as leading indicators only when the link to an outcome has been checked.
The test of an outcome measure is whether a disabled employee or participant would recognize it as a change in their experience.
A completed sort of measures; one knowledge check; three activity measures from your area rewritten as outcomes.
Take the three measures your area reports most often on disability inclusion and write, for each, what changed for people if the number moved. If you cannot, the measure is activity.
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Reset this lesson
Course overview Next lesson Carry this into practice Choose leading and outcome measures, treat feedback from disabled people as a core input, and run review points that produce decisions rather than presentations.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
