During National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) ACL's National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has awarded five new grants from the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Program (DRRPs) and Field-Initiated Projects (FIP) Program to continue expanding disability employment-related research.
The projects cover a diverse set of disability employment topics:
- A Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) project, "Quality Employment Outcomes throughout the Work Lifecycle," will conduct and translate qualitative, cross-sectional, and longitudinal research into tools to promote quality employment outcomes for people with disability secondary to spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and stroke.
- Boston University’s Enhancing Supported Employment Services for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities to Address Workplace Prejudice and Discrimination will develop an intervention, "Managing Workplace Prejudice and Discrimination," and test the intervention’s effectiveness for people with psychiatric disabilities receiving supported employment services.
- Cornell University’s Yang-Tan Institute will conduct mixed method exploratory research to learn how the public vocational rehabilitation program can effectively serve out-of-school youth with intellectual, developmental, and mental health disabilities who are involved in the justice and/or foster care systems through a project called "Improving Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes for Out-of-School Youth Involved in the Justice and/or Foster Care Systems."'
- Pennsylvania State University will examine reasons that account for the high incidence of State Vocational Rehabilitation counselors who leave for other employment opportunities, and identify strategies to increase employment retention through a project called "Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Rehabilitation Services Administration Scholarship Program."
- The Illinois Institute on Technology (ITT) will develop and evaluate the utility of an online intervention package designed to help Black college students with disabilities persist in completing technology degrees and find gainful employment as a pathway to middle-class life through a project called "Development and Evaluation of the Technology Career Development, Goal Persistence, and Job Placement Intervention Program (Tech-Jobs) for Black/African American College Students with Disabilities."
The MUSC and Boston University grants span five years from September 2021 to August 2026 and total $5 million. The Cornell, ITT, and Penn State grants are for three years from September 2021 to August 2024 and total $1.8 million.
Contact Hugh Berry at NIDILRR if you have questions about this project.
NIDILRR, part of ACL, generates new knowledge and promotes its effective use so that people with disabilities can perform activities of their choice in the community. NIDILRR also works to expand society’s capacity to provide full opportunities and accommodations for people with disabilities.