Welcome to the CBRC Trainings on "Technology for Independence" using Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Welcome!

On behalf of the project staff and consultants, we welcome you to the Community-Based Resource Center (CBRC) on "Technology for Independence." As you know, the CBRC training program investigates assistive technology through the prism of participatory action research (PAR).

The Law Health, Policy & Disability Center (LHPDC) at the University of Iowa College of Law, and the Independent Living Research Utilization at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, are delighted to provide these trainings and to further your PAR research project.

Objectives and Support

Over the next year, we will offer you instructional materials, web cast sessions, technical assistance, an on-site symposium, and access to others who are conducting PAR in the disability community. Through these multidisciplinary tools, we anticipate that you and your team will enhance your success in investigating and taking action on research projects that interest your team and your community.

We thank the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) in the U.S. Department of Education for providing 100% funding for the CBRC and for their unfailing commitment to improving the lives of persons with disabilities through innovative methods such as the use of PAR.

Impact and Not Just Outputs

We are eager to embark on this innovative endeavor with you, your team, and the disability community. We envision our roles in the training process as one of both instructor and student. We hope to learn along with you, as we present the course materials.

To these ends, this Web-based training is very much a "work in progress." We regularly will update, clarify, and enhance the rigor and relevance of the site materials in ways that support the basic goals of this endeavor — that is, to further the social and economic independence of persons with disabilities through the use of assistive technology.

We hope our collaboration over the year will be fruitful, scientifically rigorous, relevant to your interests and to local and national disability programs and policy. We also hope to have a direct and positive impact on you, your research team, and the community of persons with disabilities, as well as many other stakeholders of assistive technology. We welcome and encourage your ongoing feedback and comments on this training process.

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The CBRC is a five-year project funded 100% by NIDRR grant H133A021801. The project is a partnership of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa, College of Law, and the Independent Living Research Utilization at the Institute for Rehabilitation & Research.