University of Kansas Institute for Health and Disability Policy Studies

11/15/2025

11/14/2025

Join the Office of Civil Rights & Title IX on Nov. 19 for the next Belonging @ KU event at The University of Kansas!

Panelists Jean Hall, University of Kansas Institute for Health and Disability Policy Studies; Sean Swindler, KUCD - Kansas University Center on Disabilities; and Stephanie Ruppen, University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning, will explore disability identity, its intersections with other identities, and what accessibility and belonging look like on our campuses.

Learn more: https://loom.ly/P4wohXI

11/13/2025

11/11/2025

Researchers use data from the National Survey on Health and Disability to look at cannabis use by people with disabilities

Read more at:

11/06/2025

What does the government shutdown mean for people with disabilities?

This explainer from American Association of People with Disabilities has information on what to expect, as well as some resources (feedingamerica, Food Security Network) that people can use.

Update as of October 27, 2025: The federal government shutdown is now in its fourth week, with no immediate end in sight. As you can read about in our previous explainer, Congress has failed to pass a funding bill, leaving millions without access to critical programs. On October 22, at least 25 stat...

11/04/2025

New journal article from IHDPS explores whether having a proxy leads to people with disabilities being incorrectly represented in survey data.

Read the full article at: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/research-metrics-and-analytics/articles/10.3389/frma.2025.1654769/full

10/30/2025

To follow up on Tuesday's post -

Please visit https://essentialdata.us/

It shows how good data can be crucial for funding and services.

Just today we heard in Langston University RRTC's employment listening session that poor data tracking for special education through employment is leading to a lack of appropriate support for programs, as one example of many

Highlighting examples of how our essential public data serve the American people.

10/28/2025

Datasets from Transportation, Labor, and Commerce departments connect employers with talented Americans with disabilities.

Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist Denice Ross worked with the Disability Health Equity Research Network (DHERN) to show the connection between disability data to real outcomes for people with disabilities.



More links in comments.

10/26/2025

Great advocacy from our KU colleague. Thank you for the excellent work, Sean Tyree!

In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), Sean Tyree, a Research Aide and Self-Advocate at the KUCD - Kansas University Center on Disabilities, wrote about his powerful journey to competitive, integrated employment while living with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease.

Sean recently testified on Capitol Hill to share how Vocational Rehabilitation, Medicaid, Medicare, SSI/SSDI, ABLE savings, and strong community support helped him turned barriers into opportunities—building a meaningful career, independence, and purpose.

💬 “People with disabilities can achieve far more than society often expects; they just need the right supports to learn, grow, and pursue their purpose in life.” – Sean Tyree

Read his full story on AUCD Policy Talk:
👉 http://bit.ly/3JfBzyk

10/23/2025

We are at the last day of Center on KTDRR 's 2025 Virtual Knowledge Translation (KT) Conference this year, and are learning about lots of great KT resources!

One is a pilot project in Nigeria presented by Charles Chibuisi Ehiemere - Familia Solutions. This website & resource is for mothers in Nigeria to call in to learn about maternal healthcare in many languages - https://familiasolutions.org/ .

This resource helps combat medical misinformation, as well as allowing scheduling and reminders for healthcare check-ups.

Its use of electronic and computer-aided tools where many people cannot receive usable text messages or do not have internet access is amazing, and they are looking to expand services to more areas in the future.

10/21/2025

Some of our staff are attending Center on KTDRR 's 2025 Virtual Knowledge Translation (KT) Conference this year, and are learning about lots of great KT resources!

One resource is "Thinking for Me" - a comic by advocate Giancarlo Vicari for youth about turning 18 and talking to parents about alternatives to guardianship.

The comic is available as video and pdf:

Giancarlo was born on October 30th, 2008, in Summit New Jersey and is growing up in Union, New Jersey. He was first educated at Washington Elementary School in Union, New Jersey then from 2nd grade to now he is being educated at The Newmark School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. He is very funny, brig...

10/20/2025

AI has much potential for people who need & use AAC – potential that could be good, bad, & ugly. Wednesday learn more in this webinar with Purdue’s Dr. Rua Mae Williams, author of Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics & How We Are Wrong About AI. https://lnk.to/ai101

[Image: Blue graphic titled, AI 101 for AAC Users. Text reads: Webinar Featuring Rua Mae Williams, Author of “Disabling Intelligences.” The graphic displays a webinar time and date of 1:30 - 3:00 PM ET October 22, 2025, the CommunicationFIRST logo, and a headshot of Dr. Williams. Next to their headshot is this quote: “Whether you are an AI optimist, skeptic, or pessimist, none of us can afford to be fatalists. When we resign ourselves to the inevitability of oppressive systems, we give in to a desperate world.”]

Purdue Autism Research Center, Purdue Polytechnic