Projects
Projects
About Our Projects
The Rutgers Rehabilitation Research and Training Center will conduct rigorous research in five specific areas relative to increasing the quality of information necessary for positive employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Our research projects span from experimental studies that include random control trials (RCTs) to structured surveys to better understand how people all around the disability employment conversation think.
Our goal is to push forward and establish best practices and knowledge bases for employers, workers, researchers, and disability organizations to utilize in their efforts.
We will conduct a rigorous quasi-experimental analysis of annual company-level and employee-level data from the National Organization on Disability’s (NOD) Disability Employment Tracker (Tracker) annual survey to understand what policies and practices employers currently have in place for employees with disabilities, and how employees perceive the climate and culture of their workplace.
Using experimental RCT and quasi-experimental methods, we explore how job seekers and current employees with and without disabilities react to varying company and CEO (leadership) statements on the topic of diversity and inclusion, as well as to exposure to practical disability hiring and inclusion policies.
The unique contribution of this first-of-its-kind cluster randomized control trial (“CRCT”) is the development of rigorous evidence capable of scaling and replication on the efficacy of employee and supervisor focused interventions to improve employment outcomes of workers with disabilities associated with the provision of workplace accommodations.
Collaborating with organizations and partners, we will conduct a series of integrated studies aiming to gather evidence on best practices and frameworks to help small and medium sized businesses hire, retain, accommodate, and support workers with disabilities.
We will conduct structured surveys and interviews with healthcare workers with and without disabilities to assess their experiences with employer practices related to disability. Responses will be matched to data from employers on their disability-related practices. The sample provides a strong opportunity to examine intersectional issues, involving multiple individual identities of gender identity, race/ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation.