The mission of OSERS' National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) is to generate, disseminate and promote knowledge that will improve the lives of persons with disabilities in their communities. NIDRR conducts comprehensive and coordinated programs of research and related activities to assist in the achievement of the full inclusion, social integration, employment, and independent living of people with disabilities.
Since Congress created NIDRR in 1978, rehabilitation researchers have achieved many significant outcomes that benefit both individuals and society. For example, at the individual level, the concerted efforts of U.S. researchers, most of whom received NIDRR support, have decreased medical complications for individuals with spinal cord injuries, thus, significantly increasing their life expectancy. In addition, rehabilitation engineering research has led to the use of new materials for wheelchairs and orthotic and prosthetic devices, making this essential equipment more comfortable, functional, and attractive.
At the environmental-societal level, technology has greatly enhanced accommodations for people with all types of disabilities. Research has led to new applications of the principles of universal design to the built environment, information technology, telecommunications, transportation, and mass-market consumer products. These advances, which allow more people with disabilities to access buildings, telecommunications devices, and computer technology, illustrate a significant change in the disability paradigm a change that expands the focus of disability to include environmental factors, as well as individual factors.
NIDRR's research focus includes such areas as: employment outcomes, health and function, technology for access and function, independent living and community integration, associated disability research areas, knowledge dissemination and utilization, and capacity building for rehabilitation and international activities. For a detailed description of these areas, consult the Long-Range Plan.
NIDRR's research is conducted via a network of individual research projects and centers of excellence throughout the country. Most NIDRR grantees are universities or providers of rehabilitation or related services.
NIDRR's largest funding programs are the Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs) and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs). NIDRR also makes awards for information dissemination and utilization centers and projects, field initiated projects, research and development projects, advanced research training projects, Mary E. Switzer fellowships, small business innovative research, and model systems of care. NIDRR administers the State Technology Assistance Projects and Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers.
NIDRR's Program Directory lists all projects currently funded by NIDRR.
Search NIDRR's Program Directory:
No. NIDRR does not have a program of direct rehabilitation services to individuals. As our name indicates, research is our focus. NIDRR is a Federal agency under the Department of Education that conducts comprehensive and coordinated programs of research and related activities to assist in the achievement of the full inclusion, social integration, employment, and independent living of people with disabilities. NIDRR's research is conducted through a network of individual research projects and centers of excellence. Most NIDRR grantees are universities or providers of rehabilitation or related services.
The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research's (NIDRR) Long-Range Plan presents a five-year agenda to advance the vital work being done in applied rehabilitation research. This Long-Range Plan fulfills NIDRR's obligation under the Rehabilitation Act to provide a plan that identifies research needs and sets research priorities for the disability field.
NIDRR's plan serves the following purposes:
The Long-Range Plan was developed with the guidance of a distinguished group of NIDRR constituents — individuals with disabilities and their family members and advocates, service providers, researchers, educators, administrators, and policy makers. The plan draws upon public hearings and planning activities conducted by NIDRR, as well as papers prepared specifically for the plan by several authors.
The Plan addresses a range of diverse objectives intended to meet the following needs of the rehabilitation community:
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) opens more opportunities for persons with disabilities. To assist covered parties with the understanding and compliance of the ADA, NIDRR has funded 10 regional centers to provide information, training, and technical assistance to employers, people with disabilities, and other entities with responsibilities under the ADA. Each Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC) provides comprehensive resources on ADA issues in employment, public services, public accommodations, and communications.
More information on the ADA:
There are over 40 different definitions of disability in United States federal law but NIDRR is guided by the definition of disability in the ADA. The ADA definition sets out the following criteria:
The new paradigm maintains that disability is the result of an interaction between characteristics of the individual and those of the natural, built, communications (IT), cultural, and social environments. Personal characteristics, as well as environmental ones, may be either enabling or disabling. The relative degree of this situation fluctuates, depending on condition, time, and setting. This view of disability suggests that one of the most effective ways to address particular disabilities may be through the removal of barriers and the provision of accommodation or assistive technology.
As new causes of disabilities emerge, the new paradigm of disability clearly provides a progressive approach to successfully addressing people with disabilities. These new issues have implications not only for disability research and services, but also for public health and prevention activities.
The emerging universe is identified with new disabling conditions; new causes for impairments; differential distribution within the population; increased frequency of some impairments, including those associated with aging; and new consequences of disability, particularly related to social-environmental factors, life-span issues, and projected demands for services and supports. NIDRR has begun to focus on an emerging universe of disability, in which the conditions associated with disability, their distribution in the population, and their causes and consequences are substantially different from those in traditional disability populations.
Assistive technology (AT) is any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. (29 U.S.C. Sec 2202(2)).
Examples of assistive technology are:
Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
The intent of universal design is to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. Universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities.
For more information on universal design, visit The
Center for Universal Design, School of Design, a NIDRR funded Rehabilitation
Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Universal Design and the Built Environment.
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Last Modified: 05/13/2008
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