The National Organization on Disability commissioned this survey in the belief that knowledge about the public attitudes toward disabled persons is vital to the creation and implementation of policies concerning the participating of disabled people in public life. This landmark study documented for the first time what the public at large thinks about disabled people. The study includes 115 variables for 1,257 cases.

The 1991 NOD Survey Public Attitudes Toward People with Disabilities assessed what it the American public believed about disabled people and interactions with them. The study aimed to provide policy makers, leaders of the disability movement, media, business people, and government officials with a better understanding of what the public knows about people with disabilities, how it feels about them and the way they are treated, and what should be done to help open up more opportunities for fuller participation in all aspects of life. The main foci of the study included: