NIDILRR Publications and Resources | ACL Administration for Community Living

This page contains many expandable sections. The majority, but not all, of the expandable sections highlight a particular type of NIDILRR or grantee-produced output, i.e., publications, tools, technology products, and information products. If you are a keyboard and/or assistive technology users, you may find it easier to use the expandable sections by following the Instructions for Navigating ACL.gov with a Keyboard.

As you explore the content under each of the expandable sections below, you may have questions and/or suggestions for improving this page. If you do, NIDILRR welcomes your feedback. Please send an email to nidilrr-mailbox@acl.hhs.gov.

NIDILRR Resources for Prospective and Current Grantees

In response to feedback NIDILRR received, we have created this online space to share various resources (e.g., videos, guides, checklists, etc.) that will hopefully benefit prospective NIDILRR grantees as well as current grantees. These resources are currently being developed. When available, web links to these resources will be posted under the "prospective grantee" sub-heading or the "current grantee" sub-heading.

NIDILRR Resources for Prospective Grantees

Thinking about becoming a prospective NIDILRR grantee, the materials in this section are intended for you. This section is under development and resources will appear here soon.

NIDILRR Resources for Current Grantees

Already a member of the NIDILRR grantee family, the materials in this section are intended for you. This section is under development and resources will appear here soon.

NIDILRR-Produced Publications

ACL's National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) produces a number of agency-level publications that may interest you. The term publications is used broadly and can include but are not limited to the following types of publications: Annual Reports to Congress; Organizational Highlight Reports; Summary of Annual Performance Reports From NIDILRR Grantees; evaluation reports, and other types of reports.

None of the agency-level reports, listed below, would have been possible without assistance from two groups: conscientious grantees who provide requested data, and NIDILRR contractors. It is also important to remember that only the Annual Reports to Congress are produced annually as required by statute.

We invite you to explore the various NIDILRR Agency-level publications listed below. If you have any questions or comments about these publications, you may send an email to: nidilrr-mailbox@acl.hhs.gov

March 20, 2024: NIDILRR Toolkit (PDF, 5.8MB): The toolkit is intended as an educational resource primarily for stakeholders who may not know about NIDILRR, but who may benefit from learning about NIDILRR and its resources, and as a communication tool for stakeholders who want to inform others about NIDILRR’s work and resources.
NIDILRR FY 2021-2022 Organization Highlights (PDF, 2,609KB): If you are not very familiar with NIDILRR and want to know what some of the key organizational highlights were for Fiscal Years 2021-2022, presented in a newsletter-type format, then this document might be the one you want.
The NIDILRR Annual Report Page: This page contains NIDILRR's Annual Reports to Congress listed by year.
NIDILRR FY 2020 Organization Highlights (PDF, 1,559KB): If you are not very familiar with NIDILRR and want to know what some of the key organizational highlights were for Fiscal Year 2020, presented in a newsletter-type format, then this document might be the one you want.
NIDILRR FY 2015 Organization Highlights (PDF, 5713KB): If you are not very familiar with NIDILRR and want to know what some of the key organizational highlights were for Fiscal Year 2015, presented in a newsletter-type format, then this document might be the one you want.
NIDILRR FY 2014 Organization Highlights (PDF, 4500KB): If you are not very familiar with NIDILRR and want to know what some of the key organizational highlights were for Fiscal Year 2015, presented in a newsletter-type format, then this document might be the one you want.
NIDILRR FY 2013 Organization Highlights (PDF, 4500KB): If you are not very familiar with NIDILRR and want to know what some of the key organizational highlights were for Fiscal Year 2015, presented in a newsletter-type format, then this document might be the one you want.
Summary of 2013 Annual Performance Reports from NIDILRR Grantees (PDF, 417KB): This 2013 "chart book" summarizes some key grantee-reported data in pictures and graphs with accompanying written descriptions.
Summary of 2012 Annual Performance Reports from NIDILRR Grantees (PDF, 487KB), This 2012 "chart book" summarizes some key grantee-reported data in pictures and graphs with accompanying written descriptions.
National Research Council (2012). Review of Disability and Rehabilitation Research: NIDILRR Grant-Making Processes and Products Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.: This document is a bit dated (because NIDILRR was known as NIDRR back then in the Department of Education) but it still represents one of the most comprehensive external evaluations that has ever been done on NIDRR.

NIDILRR Grantee-Produced Publications

NIDILRR's mission is to generate new knowledge and to promote it use and adoption. A big part of this mission involves ensuring that NIDILRR-funded grantee-produced publications are easy to access, download, and read. ACL NIDILRR's Public Access Plan (PDF) outlines our approach and commitment to doing just that.

ACL/NIDILRR is using PubMed Central (PMC)—the National Institutes of Health (NIH) digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature, developed and operated by the National Library of Medicine, as its designated peer-reviewed publications repository.

As NIDILRR Project Officers continue to encourage the grantees they monitor to submit their publications into Pub Med Central, more and more full-text peer-reviewed journal articles, authored by NIDILRR grantees, are becoming available for interested internal and external stakeholders to download. Some of the many full-text peer-reviewed journal articles, authored by NIDILRR grantees within the last five years, are presented below by NIDILRR Program/Funding Mechanism. NIDILRR encourages you to explore these publications.

If you have any questions about the NIDILRR-funded grantees that produced these articles, send an email to nidilrr-mailbox@acl.hhs.gov.

In addition to PubMed Central, NIDILRR funds the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC) to collect grantee-produced publications. NARIC develops short abstracts for each publication and adds the abstract and citations to REHABDATA, its searchable database of rehabilitation literature.

If you are looking for rehabilitation and disability literature you may want to Search for NIDILRR-produced publications in REHABDATA.

If you need help searching REHABDATA, you may want to visit NARIC's AskMe Page

NIDILRR Grantee-Produced Tools

ACL/NIDILRR grantees produce more than scholarly publications. Another type of output that can result from grantee research and development activities are tools. NIDILRR defines "tools" broadly. They can include but are not limited to: measures; intervention protocols; instruments or processes created to acquire quantitative or qualitative information, knowledge, or data on a specific disability or rehabilitation issue.

The National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC) maintains an online searchable tools collection for NIDILRR

NIDILRR Grantee-Produced Technology-Related Products

Technology-related information usually refers to standards for doing or building something the right way (e.g., standards for building a wheelchair or accessible van, transporting a wheelchair user safely in a vehicle).

Sometimes, standards exist but are outdated because of new developments in the market. Other standards do not exist because no one has ever tried to do what is being proposed. In either case, Small Business Innovative Research Phase I program grantees, Small Business Phase II program grantees, and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center Program Grantees provide the brain power behind the standards work. Several examples of publications produced by RERC grantees that illustrate their contributions to disability and rehabilitation standards 'work are presented below.

.Technology products usually refer to the "cool stuff" that people make, build, or write about. RERC and SBIR grantees are also involved in making, building, or testing this stuff. They follow a design process, which can be complicated but basically starts with understanding a problem faced by a group of users. Then, they interview users to discover what features or needs they care about or desire. Technology people then take these user requirements and start to design, build, test, and make a prototype. Prototypes are tested by a group of users, tweaked or re-designed based on feedback, and re-tested until they satisfy user requirements. Read about NIDILRR's stages of development framework (SODF).

View some examples of products made by NIDILRR, SBIR, and RERC grantees in NARIC's multimedia collection.

NIDILRR Grantee-Produced Informational Products

Information products are usually geared toward a general audience and can include things like “how-to” manuals, CDs, newsletters, brochures, training guides, fact sheets, and videos. Grantees produce many of these types of outputs.

NIDILRR grantees, especially the Knowledge Translation Center grantees, produce full-text fact and tip sheets on a variety of subjects. Examples include, but are not limited to:

In addition to the many informational products produced by NIDILRR Knowledge Translation Centers, many full-text grantee-produced information products are available in REHABDATA. Tip after left-mouse clicking, or hitting the Tab" key to highlight the link and then the hitting the "Enter" key to activate the link, users will be taken to the REHABDATA Adanced search page. Below are the steps you would follow to discover the many full-text grantee-produced factsheets found in REHABDATA.

In the text box labeled "with all of these words", type the phrase factsheets
Scroll or move down the search form page until you come down near the bottom of the page. Find the bolded text labeled Only return documents whose full text is available online. Make sure the round radio button next to the "Yes" choice is selected.
Leave all the other radio button choices alone and move down the page until you see the black and white rectangular search button. Left mouse-click or hit the "Enter" key to run the search. If the search is successful, a list of full-text grantee-produced factsheets, available in REHABDATA, will appear on your screen.
You can scroll, or move down the page, to see the entire list of factsheets. And when you find one that interests you, left-click, or hit the "Enter" key to learn more about the factsheet. Finally. with the full record open on your screen, you will see a pdf icon. Left mouse-click,or hit the "Enter" key, to download a full-text version of the factsheet in PDF format. If you do not have a PDF viewer installed on your machine, you can download the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

NIDILRR Research and Statistics

The grantee websites listed in this section have a data and/or a statistical focus. A "data-focus" means that some of the grantees collect, track, analyze, and report out data over time. A "statistical" focus means that the grantees perform statistical analyses on the data they collect.

Disability Statistics and Demographics RRTC

A Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) primarily funded by NIDILRR: The purpose of the Disability Statistics RRTC is to produce and disseminate statistical information on disability and the status of people with disabilities in American society, and to establish and monitor indicators about how conditions change over time to meet their health, housing, economic, and social needs. The RRTC also maintains an Annual Disability Statistics Compendium.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), established in 1970, supports and directs the collection, management, and analysis of the world's largest and longest spinal cord injury research database. Organizationally, NSCISC is currently at the hub of a network of 14 NIDILRR-sponsored and 5 subcontract-funded Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems located at major medical centers throughout the U.S. In addition to maintaining the national database, NSCISC personnel conduct ongoing, database-oriented research. Many findings of these investigative efforts have had significant impacts on the delivery and nature of medical rehabilitation services provided to patients with spinal cord injuries.

Traumatic Brain Injury National Data and Statistics Center

The primary purpose of the Traumatic Brain Injury National Data and Statistics Center (TBINDSC), established in 1987, is to advance medical rehabilitation by increasing the rigor and efficiency of scientific efforts to longitudinally assess the experience of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The TBINDSC provides technical assistance, training, and methodological consultation to 16 TBIMS centers as they collect and analyze longitudinal data from people with TBI in their communities, and as they conduct research toward evidence-based TBI rehabilitation interventions.

National Data and Statistical Center for the Burn Model Systems

The National Data and Statistical Center for the Burn Model Systems (BMS NDSC), established 1994, advances medical rehabilitation by increasing the rigor and efficiency of scientific efforts to assess the experiences and outcomes of individuals with burn injuries.

NIDILRR Grantee Web and Social Media Sites

Many of our currently or newly-funded NIDILRR-grantees maintain websites and/or social media accounts. View a a complete dynamic list of all currently or newly-funded grantees which have either at least one website and/or at least one social media account (youtube, formerly known twitter now X, facebook, linked-in, pinterest, instagram) or both. This list is dynamic because it can and does change based on additions and deletions to NIDILRR's Online Program Directory. This directory is maintained by the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC) for NIDILRR.

The complete list, above, may be too large and therefore not very useful to all visitors to our website. Thus, this web page also contains links to NIDILRR grantee websites by program or funding mechanism as well as links to NIDILRR grantee social media accounts by program or funding mechanism.

Note:Links appearing on this page direct users to specific entries in NIDILRR's Online Program Database This resource is maintained by the National Rehabilitation Information Center under contract number 140D0421C0021 for the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research.

NIDILRR Grantee Websites by Program Mechansim

Note: To identify the grantees listed below, the following search query was run in the NIDILRR Online Program Directory Search Form. This search query was run multiple times, once for each project type in the directory. Of course, the project type was mofied for each program mechanism.

All currently and newly funded projects, containing at least one of the word(s): "http" OR "https", without the word(s): "youtube" OR "facebook" OR "twitter" OR "linkedin" OR "pinterest" OR "instagram", where the Project Type is: 'Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs)', sorted by Start Date descending

The above search query does not include grantees that have a website and a social media site. It just includes grantees with at least one website. Some grantees who have websites are not listed below because the query did not include social media accounts. Many grantees have both websites and social media accounts.

NIDILRR Grantee Social Media Accounts by Program Mechanism

The search query below was used on each NIDILRR project type and social media account type in the NIDILRR Online Program Directory. Unlike the query in the preceding section, this query includes grantees that have at least one social media account, i.e., youtube twitter, facebook pinterest instagram linkedin. You will also see grantee websites mixed in with grantee social media accounts because separate fields in the online database are not used to store website addresses in one field, and social media accounts in another.

The basic query used to create the hyperlinked lists of social media accounts, for each NIDILRR program mechanism, is listed below. Of course, the project type is modified for each project type.

All currently and newly funded projects, containing at least one of the word(s): ' faceook OR twitter OR youtube OR instagram OR linkedin OR pinterest OR Soundcloud ', where the Project Type is: 'Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs)', sorted by Start Date descending

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC): Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Pinterest, Instagram, or Soundcloud. Or they may have zero social media accounts.

Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC): Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, or Soundcloud. Or they may have zero social media accounts.

Disability and Rehabilitation Research Program (DRRP): Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud, etc. Or they may have zero social media accounts.

Burn Injury Model Systems: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or they may have zero social media accounts.

Spinal Cord Injury Model System: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud Or they may zero social media accounts.

Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or they may have zero social media accounts.

Field-Initiated Program (FIP): Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or they may have zero social media accounts.

Fellowships (Distinguished: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or, they may have zero any social media accounts.

Fellowships (Merit): Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or, they may have zero social media accounts.

Advanced Rehabilitation Research and Training (ARRT): Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or, they may have zero social media accounts.

ADA Network: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may >have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or, they may have zero social media accounts.

Small Business Phase I: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or, they may have zero social media accounts.

Small Business Phase II: Grantees in this program/funding mechanism may have one or more social media accounts, i.e., YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram or Soundcloud. Or, they may have zero social media accounts.

NIDILRR's Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR)

Authorized by the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, as amended, the Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR) was established to promote coordination and collaboration among federal departments and agencies conducting disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research programs, including programs related to assistive technology research and research that incorporates the principles of universal design.

To learn more about the ICDR, visit the About Us Page on ACL/NIDILRR's ICDR Website

Do you care about stakeholder engagement and how to measure it? If so, ICDR's latest Getting the Most Out of Stakeholder Engagement: A Toolkit to Better Understand and Measure Engagement may be of interest to you.

View ICDR's Reports' Landing Page

View ICDR's Federaly-Funded Research Section

To get in touch with the ICDR, you can send an email to ICDRinfo@neweditions.net

Additional Resources

ACL does not endorse the following resources. They are listed for informational purposes only.