About Us
About Us
What We Do
The Rutgers Employer Disability Practices Center established by the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers University conducts research to examine the efficacy and scalability of employer practices to create positive employment outcomes for workers with disabilities. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers across multiple universities will conduct rigorous studies across five focused projects in collaboration with the National Organization on Disability.
The findings will provide diverse individuals with disabilities and their employers access to practical, timely, and effective knowledge to explore paths to employment and career advancement. The knowledge generated from this research will be useful to employers, policymakers, employment service providers, researchers, and those entering the labor market.
Our Partners
Role: Partner Organization
BBI reaches around the globe to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities. BBI builds on the legacy of Burton Blatt, former dean of SU’s School of Education and a pioneering disability rights scholar, to better the lives of people with disabilities. BBI engages in projects on civil and human rights, entrepreneurship and employment, technology access, and economic empowerment. With a staff of more than 50, BBI has offices in Syracuse, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. For more information, visit http://bbi.syr.edu.
Role: Partner Organization
When the National Organization on Disability was founded in 1982, it was the first organization in the United States to represent every person with a disability, regardless of particular needs or circumstances. To have a disability is to belong to a large extended community — one out of every four Americans fits the description — that includes immense diversity, but also common threads of shared experience. Its mission has always been to break down the barriers that fence people off from the wider community. Today, NOD focuses on eliminating the most wasteful and isolating of all those barriers: the artificial gulf that keeps tens of millions of people out of the productive workforce.
NOD envisions a world where all people with disabilities enjoy full opportunity for employment, enterprise and earnings, and employers know how to make the most of talents with disabilities.
Role: Partner Organization
The Indiana Institute on Disability and Community (IIDC), Indiana’s University Center for Excellence in Disabilities, has fostered a foundation of excellence for community investment in developmental disabilities since 1970. Our mission is to work with communities to welcome, value, and support the meaningful participation of people of all ages and abilities through research, education, and service.
Role: Sister Organization (Under BBI)
The Disability-Inclusive Employment Policy Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (DIEP RRTC) is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR, grant #90RTEM0006-01-00) in the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services. Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, Harvard Medical School, and Rutgers University are partnering to design and implement a series of studies that produce new data and evidence on DIEP policy to increase employment rates and outcomes for persons with disabilities.
The research will examine federal, regional, state, and private industry policies and programs to identify critical outcomes and impacts that improve employment entry options, better wage and income levels, worker retention and job quality and benefits, career growth and paths to economic stability, employment reengagement in the event of job loss and reduced dependence on Social Security disability benefits.
Our Team
Jeffrey Cowen
Research Assistant
Abigail Clemson
Student Research Assistant
Gabriella Toral
Student Research Assistant
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