Department of Health and Human Services

National Institute on Disability, 

Independent Living, and 

Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)

2022 Annual Report to Congress

Prepared by

ADMINISTRATIONFOR 

COMMUNITY LIVING
Page | 1 

Table of Contents

Table of Contents........................................................................................................................ 1

Acronyms.................................................................................................................................... 2

Executive Summary..................................................................................................................... 3

Funding and Grants Management........................................................................................... 3

Productivity and Accomplishments ......................................................................................... 3

Research Capacity-Building...................................................................................................... 5

Training and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act............................... 5

Knowledge Translation............................................................................................................ 5

Ongoing Activities ................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 7

Grant Competitions – 2022 Year in Review............................................................................... 10

Grant Competition and Peer Review Process ........................................................................ 10

Grant Competitions............................................................................................................... 10

Noteworthy Equity Grants..................................................................................................... 13

Monitoring and Oversight...................................................................................................... 13

Funding Overview.................................................................................................................. 15

Grantee Activities and Progress............................................................................................. 19

Sampling of Key Accomplishments by Funded Researchers................................................... 20

ADA National Network .......................................................................................................... 26

Research Fellowship Program (Mary E. Switzer Fellowship Program) ................................... 28

Ongoing Activities ................................................................................................................. 30
Page | 2 

Acronyms 

ACL Administration for Community Living

ADA Americans with Disabilities Act

APR Annual Performance Reporting System

ARRT Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Project

DRRP Disability and Rehabilitation Research Project

FIP Field-Initiated Project

FY Fiscal Year

HCBS Home- and Community-Based Services

HHS U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

ICDR Interagency Committee on Disability Research

ICT Information and Communications Technology

KT Knowledge Translation

MSI Minority-Serving Institution

MSKTC Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center

NIDILRR National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and 

Rehabilitation Research

ntSCI Nontraumatic Spinal Cord Injury

PDF Portable Document Format

PI Principal Investigator

RERC Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center

RRTC Rehabilitation Research and Training Center

SBIR Small Business Innovation Research

SCI Spinal Cord Injury

TBI Traumatic Brain Injury

TBIMS Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems

WIOA Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
Page | 3 

Executive Summary

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 transferred the National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) to the Administration for 

Community Living (ACL) from the U.S. Department of Education. With this move, NIDILRR’s 

mission remained unchanged: to generate new knowledge and to promote its effective use to 

improve the abilities of individuals with disabilities to perform activities of their choice in the 

community, as well as to expand society’s capacity to provide full opportunities and 

accommodations for individuals with disabilities. As the primary research enterprise within ACL, 

NIDILRR’s mission is highly complementary to the overarching mission of ACL: to maximize the 

independence, well-being, and health of older adults and people with disabilities across the 

lifespan, and their families and caregivers.

ACL’s NIDILRR programs address a wide range of disabilities and impairments across all age 

groups and promote health and function, community living and participation, and employment. 

To accomplish these goals, ACL invests in research, knowledge translation, and capacitybuilding activities through its discretionary grant-funding mechanisms.

Funding and Grants Management

The allocation of ACL’s NIDILRR grant funds for fiscal year (FY) 2022 totaled $110,638,232. In 

addition, NIDILRR awarded $5,768,061 in contracts and other support activities in FY 2022. 

These funds supported 245 grant awards in FY 2022 which enabled more than 1,500 discrete 

projects.

The peer review process for NIDILRR grant competitions is highly rigorous, with 21 percent of 

applicants receiving new grant funding during FY 2022 (see Table 1).

Productivity and Accomplishments

ACL funds research toward the development of new knowledge and innovative technological 

devices, prototypes, measurement tools, interventions, and other informational products to 

enhance community living, health and function, and employment among people with 

disabilities. Grantees employ advanced methodologies to conduct research, including 

randomized controlled trials, longitudinal studies, and qualitative studies. These investments 

produce peer-reviewed publications, intervention protocols, software, databases, and a wide 

range of other outputs and outcomes. Following are selected examples of grantee 

accomplishments in FY 2022:
Page | 4 

Reducing Costs for Families and States by Increasing Access to Home- and Community-Based 

Services

The Senate Aging Committee held a hearing on March 23, 2022, on the importance of homeand community-based services (HCBS) called “An Economy That Cares: The Importance of

Home-Based Services.” The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Community 

Living Policy at the Lurie Institute at Brandeis University developed a brief, Reducing Costs for

Families and States by Increasing Access to Home- and Community-Based Services. This brief 

was distributed to staff and submitted in the Congressional Record for the hearing, and Senator 

Bob Casey (D-PA) highlighted the brief and the Community Living Policy Center in his closing 

remarks. Unmet needs and long waiting lists for Medicaid HCBS place significant strain and 

economic burden on individuals with disabilities and their families. Even among individuals 

receiving Medicaid HCBS there are high levels of unmet needs for services. When individuals do 

not have needed HCBS, their health and community living outcomes are worse. Moreover, the 

health and economic well-being of family caregivers erode, often resulting in undesirable 

placements in more costly nursing home and institutional settings. This brief describes ways in 

which increased access to HCBS reduces costs for families and states.

Setting the National Target for Recovery of People With TBI

Healthy People 2030, the nation’s current 10-year plan for addressing the most critical public 

health priorities, has accepted an objective for the recovery of individuals with traumatic brain 

injury (TBI) that was proposed by a small work group led by NIDILRR’s TBI Model Systems

(TBIMS) National Data and Statistical Center. This objective is to “increase the percentage of 

adults who can resume more than half of their preinjury activities (with or without supports) 5 

years after receiving acute inpatient rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury.” The objective 

points to the critical importance of access to inpatient rehabilitation and to community-based 

services and supports for people with chronic brain injury. The TBIMS National Database is the 

approved data source for monitoring progress toward this objective over the coming decade. 

This database is the product of NIDILRR’s TBIMS Centers Program and is managed by the TBIMS 

National Data and Statistical Center.

Exploring Expansion of SCIMS Database to Include Nontraumatic SCI

A new NIDILRR initiative brought forth in June 2022 was a challenge to the Spinal Cord Injury 

(SCI) Model Systems (SCIMS) to carefully, thoughtfully, and with intentionality consider 

expansion of both the research projects and the longitudinal database to include individuals 

with nontraumatic SCI (ntSCI). During FY 2022, with supplemental funding, the SCIMS data 

center worked to systematically identify the etiologic, neurological, and rehabilitation systemlevel variables associated with ntSCI with input from experts. Then, a landscape analysis was 
Page | 5 

completed across 18 SCIMS to assess how many and what types of ntSCI patients were being

seen and to gain information about potential data collection modifications. Currently, pilot data 

are being collected across all 18 SCIMS to inform the design of a future ntSCI national database.

Telemedicine Barriers for Persons With Disabilities

The Southwest Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Center addressed telemedicine barriers for 

persons with disabilities in a publication entitled “Telemedicine Barriers and Challenges for

Persons with Disabilities: COVID-19 and Beyond.” The Southwest ADA National Network 

Regional Center provides training and technical assistance to benefit individuals and entities 

with rights and responsibilities under the ADA. In addition, this center conducts research into 

access barriers experienced by people with disabilities. This article describes key systematic 

challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that telemedicine is available and fully 

accessible to individuals with disabilities. During this reporting period, the publication has been 

cited by several researchers conducting studies in accessible telehealth, and it has implications 

for improving the health outcomes for persons with disabilities in a new era of healthcare 

delivery.

Research Capacity-Building

Research capacity-building efforts under the Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training 

Projects, Switzer Fellowship Program, and NIDILRR’s center grant programs develop a diverse 

cadre of emerging disability and rehabilitation researchers. In addition, NIDILRR directs targeted 

resources to minority-serving institutions, such as historically Black colleges and universities

and tribal colleges and universities, to develop and implement programs to build disability and 

rehabilitation research capacity.

Training and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act

ACL sponsors the ADA National Network, which delivers training, technical assistance, and 

dissemination of materials for stakeholders with rights and responsibilities under the ADA. The 

ADA Participation Action Research Consortium complements the network’s activities through 

research on factors influencing the community living of individuals with disabilities at state, 

regional, and community levels.

Knowledge Translation

ACL is committed to ensuring that the products of its sponsored research and development 

promote the independent living, health and function, employment, and community living 

outcomes of individuals with disabilities. Through its Knowledge Translation Centers, ACL 

ensures that new knowledge and products gained through research and development are 
Page | 6 

effectively communicated to stakeholders and used to improve the lives of individuals with 

disabilities. 

Ongoing Activities

ACL will focus on implementing and integrating the visions of the NIDILRR director and the 

mission of ACL into NIDILRR programs. In March 2019, ACL published NIDILRR’s FY 2018–2023

Long-Range Plan. This document defines the programmatic vision and will frame NIDILRR’s 

research agenda for the coming years. Additionally, the director has identified goals to bolster 

the ways in which NIDILRR involves people with disabilities across the entire research process 

and research enterprise. These goals include increasing the representation of researchers with 

disabilities within NIDILRR’s funding mechanisms, increasing disabled researchers of color and 

from other underrepresented backgrounds, and deepening the rehabilitation training field 

trajectory. 

Strategic partnerships with other agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS) and across the federal government have been instrumental in advancing 

NIDILRR’s mission. ACL will continue to enhance its existing partnerships and seek out new 

collaborative opportunities within HHS and, more broadly, across the federal disability and 

rehabilitation research communities. NIDILRR’s director serves as the chair of the Interagency 

Committee on Disability Research (ICDR). Under the ICDR chair’s leadership, efforts will focus 

on building upon the ongoing work of the ICDR, contributing to the achievement of goals set 

forth in the government-wide disability and rehabilitation research strategic plan.
Page | 7 

2022 Report to Congress

Introduction 

The Administration for Community Living’s (ACL’s) National Institute on Disability, Independent 

Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) is committed to improving independent living and 

community participation among people with disabilities by funding research and development 

in the areas of community living and participation, health and function, and employment. This 

Annual Report to Congress will describe NIDILRR’s activities and accomplishments during fiscal 

year (FY) 2022. It begins with a summary of the organization’s historical foundation, provides a 

description of its funding process and fiscal allocations, and follows with descriptions of 

programmatic outcomes impacting the community. This report concludes by describing ongoing 

initiatives and directions within the organization.

NIDILRR was established by Congress to conduct research that would lead to improved health 

and function, employment, and community living outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

First constituted as the National Institute on Handicapped Research by the Rehabilitation, 

Comprehensive Services, and Developmental Disabilities Amendments of 1978 (P.L. 95–602), 

amending the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the organization was originally housed in the 

Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and later in the Department of Education. The 

1986 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act changed the agency’s name to the National 

Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. On July 22, 2014, the agency was renamed 

the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research and 

transferred from the Department of Education to ACL within the U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services (HHS). This change occurred with the passage of P.L. 113–128, the Workforce 

Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). NIDILRR personnel officially became ACL employees on 

February 8, 2015.

NIDILRR’s mission is to generate new knowledge and promote its effective use to improve the 

abilities of individuals with disabilities to perform activities of their choice in the community as 

well as to expand society’s capacity to provide full opportunities and accommodations for 

individuals with disabilities. To accomplish this mission, NIDILRR

• supports research, development, training, technical assistance, and related activities to 

build new knowledge;

• promotes the transfer, use, and adoption of technology for individuals with disabilities 

to improve health and function, employment, and independent community living and 

participation outcomes;
Page | 8

• provides for research training to increase the number of qualified researchers, including 

researchers with disabilities and from minority backgrounds; and

• fosters widespread dissemination and use of scientific and technological information to 

advance policy, practice, and services that improve outcomes for people with 

disabilities.

NIDILRR programs address community living and participation, health and function, and 

employment outcomes of people with disabilities. ACL’s investments in research, development, 

knowledge translation, and capacity-building activities are carried out through the following 

discretionary grant-funding mechanisms:

• Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTC) conduct advanced research and 

training on a wide variety of health, rehabilitation, employment, and community living 

topics.

• Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) conduct rehabilitation engineering 

research and development toward technological solutions to rehabilitation problems or 

environmental barriers.

• Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) conduct research, development, 

technical assistance, training, and utilization activities on health, rehabilitation, 

employment, and community living topics.

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) National Network projects conduct research and 

provide information, training, and technical assistance to ADA stakeholders.

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects support small businesses’ work to 

explore feasibility and develop or evaluate the commercialization potential of new 

technology products for people with disabilities.

• Knowledge Translation (KT) projects promote the use of research-based knowledge in 

NIDILRR’s community of stakeholders.

• Field-Initiated Projects (FIP) conduct 3-year studies on topics proposed by applicants to 

address disability and rehabilitation issues in promising and innovative ways.

• Model Systems programs in spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and 

burn injury conduct research on rehabilitation and long-term outcomes of individuals 

with these conditions. Research in these programs includes collaborative, multisite 

research and collection and analysis of longitudinal data.
Page | 9

• Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Projects (ARRT) support the efforts of 

institutions of higher education to provide advanced interdisciplinary research training 

to postdoctoral fellows.

• Research Fellowship Programs, or Mary E. Switzer Fellowships, are awarded to 

qualified individuals to conduct 1-year independent research projects.

• Section 21 projects focus on research capacity-building for minority-serving institutions 

(MSI), including historically Black colleges and universities and other institutions with 

significant racial/ethnic minority student populations. Section 21 of the Rehabilitation 

Act requires that 1% of NIDILRR appropriations be invested to address traditionally 

underserved populations.
Page | 10 

Grant Competitions – 2022 Year in 

Review 

Grant Competition and Peer Review Process

ACL’s NIDILRR sponsors disability and rehabilitation research and development in the outcome 

domains of community living and participation, health and function, and employment. Funding 

is provided to the research community through its funding mechanisms, with priorities within 

these mechanisms determined by the agency. NIDILRR utilizes a rigorous peer review process, 

as required by federal regulation, and internal and external program evaluation to ensure the 

quality of its sponsored research and development activities. Subject matter experts with the 

appropriate credentials and content knowledge evaluate the scientific, technical, and 

management aspects of proposals submitted in response to NIDILRR funding opportunity 

announcements. This process generates an average score across reviewers, reducing bias and 

facilitating the ranking of projects by scientific merit. Only the highest-ranking proposals are 

recommended for ACL funding.

Grant Competitions

Table 1 describes NIDILRR’s FY 2022 grant competitions. The numbers of eligible applicants, 

review panels, reviewers, and awards made and the percentage of applicants receiving funding 

are shown. A large percentage of applications receive high peer review scores that indicate 

strong technical merit and significant need. ACL’s limited resources allow only a small 

percentage of these applicants to receive grants each year.
Page | 11

Table 1: NIDILRR Peer Review Process Overview, FY 2022

Grant 

Opportunity

Number of 

Eligible 

Applicants

Number of 

Panels

Number of 

Reviewers

Number of 

Awards Made

Percent of 

Applicants 

Receiving 

Funding

ARRT Health 

and Function

10 1 5 1 10%

ARRT 

Community 

Living and 

Participation1

2 1 5 1 50%

ARRT 

Employment

1 1 5 1 100%

ARRT Minority 

Serving 

Institutions

1 1 5 1 100%

SBIR Phase 1 38 4 20 10 26%

SBIR Phase 2 12 2 10 4 33%

Switzer 

Research 

Fellowships

35 4 16 8 23%

FIP 149 16 79 18 12%

FIP Minority 

Serving 

Institutions

12 2 9 3 25%

DRRP ADA 

Collaborative

1 1 5 1 100%

1

The ARRT Community Living and Participation grant opportunity (described in the second row of this table) had two 

eligible applicants so the same panel of 5 reviewers was also used to review the ARRT Employment Grant Opportunity 

in the third row which only had one eligible applicant. 
Page | 12

Grant 

Opportunity

Number of 

Eligible 

Applicants

Number of 

Panels

Number of 

Reviewers

Number of 

Awards Made

Percent of 

Applicants 

Receiving 

Funding

DRRP KT for 

Disability and 

Rehabilitation 

Research

1 1 5 1 100%

DRRP 

Community 

Living

25 3 14 1 4%

DRRP TBI Model 

Systems

22 3 15 16 73%

DRRP Burn 

Model Systems

8 1 4 4 50%

SCI Model 

Systems 

Collaborative

7 1 5 1 14%

RERC Low 

Vision/Blindness

6 1 5 1 17%

RERC Strategies, 

Techniques, 

Interventions

11 2 10 1 9%

RERC Accessible 

Recreation

4 1 5 1 25%

RRTC Equity, 

Community 

Living

6 1 5 1 17%

RRTC Equity, 

Employment

4 1 5 1 25%

RRTC Equity, 

Health and 

Function

6 1 5 1 17%

Total 361 48 232 77 21%

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. These figures do not include FY 2022 awards made from

2021 slates. Note: H&F = health and function; CL&P = community living and participation; EMP= employment; Burn = 

burn injury.
Page | 13 

Noteworthy Equity Grants

Many grants across NIDILRR’s full portfolio of FY 2022 awards have a focus on equity or multiply 

marginalized people with disabilities. As an example, awards were made to three new equityfocused Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs), which conduct research and 

serve as national resource hubs to improve rehabilitation methodology and service delivery 

systems; improve health and functioning; and promote employment, independent living, family 

support, and economic and social self-sufficiency for people with disabilities. Each RRTC will be 

carrying out multiple research projects throughout the duration of the grant with equity as the 

focus. The three RRTCs have the following roles:

• Community Living Equity Center (Grant #90RTCP0006) will focus on reducing community 

living disparities for disabled people of color and other marginalized identities. Through 

activities including five research projects, the center will develop and share new 

knowledge about community living and participation disparities and will identify or 

develop promising systems change practices for reducing these disparities.

• Employment Equity Center (Grant # 90RTEM0009) will focus on reducing the 

additional barriers to employment that often are experienced by disabled people who 

also are marginalized due to other identities. The center will conduct five major 

studies and related activities guided by people with disabilities from underserved populations

and establish a new researcher mentoring program to encourage underrepresented research 

to contribute to scientific workforce diversity efforts.

• Health Equity Center (Grant # 90RTHF0005) will identify and address healthcare 

disparities experienced by multiply marginalized people with disabilities. This center will 

conduct three studies based on existing data and two studies to support the 

development of interventions to change behaviors of healthcare providers and systems.

As another example, in FY 2022, NIDILRR had 12 active Section 21 grants across its portfolio 

which support projects focused on research capacity-building for MSI, including historically 

Black colleges and universities and other institutions with significant racial/ethnic minority 

student populations.

Monitoring and Oversight

ACL’s NIDILRR uses its Annual Performance Reporting (APR) system, formative review 

mechanisms, and close monitoring of grant activities by ACL staff to provide rigorous oversight 

of its funded initiatives. NIDILRR’s APR is a web-based grants performance system that grantees 

use to provide data about goals and objectives, staffing, budget, research and development 

methods, progress, outputs, and accomplishments. Data are used to determine whether 

continuation funding should be provided to a grantee. For a new grantee, the first reporting 

period begins on the start date of the award and extends through May 31 of the following year. 
Page | 14 

Subsequent reporting periods begin June 1 and end May 31. Grantees submit their progress 

reports annually by July 1.

As part of the APR process, NIDILRR asks grantees to voluntarily disclose the number of staff on 

the funded project who have a disability, as well as the disability status of the principal 

investigator (PI). NIDILRR is committed to ensuring the research enterprise is inclusive of 

investigators and staff with disabilities. Investigators and other professional staff are the two 

categories that had the most staff with a disability during the period from 2010 to 2022. The 

number of staff with a disability across NIDILRR projects has a slight upward trend across the 

entire 12-year period. In FY 2022, 65 PIs self-identified as disabled, representing 19.8% of 

currently active PIs of NIDILRR grants, and 499 staff members working on NIDILRR grants 

identified as disabled, representing 14.5% of staff members. The number of grants with a PI 

with a disability nearly doubled between 2007 (n=35) and 2022 (n=65), as represented in 

Exhibit 1 below. 

Exhibit 1: Principal investigator Disability Status Over Time

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. 2007–2022 Annual Performance Reports. 

Note: A nonunique Principal Investigator means that a Principal Investigator's name repeats itself more than once

in the cleaned data. This repetition can happen because the same Principal Investigator is listed on the same grant 

over multiple years; the same Principal Investigator gets assigned a new staff ID for each year. It can also happen 

when a Principal Investigator0 is listed as P I on two more different grants or when a grant has two or more P Is.

Formative evaluations of funded awards are used as supplemental oversight and technical 

assistance tools for grantees. Such reviews are conducted when program officers believe that a 

grantee could benefit from targeted technical assistance in addition to that available from the 

program officer. A panel of subject matter experts is chosen to provide the technical assistance 

and make recommendations for improvement if needed.

Staff, as experienced program administrators and researchers, are highly adept at maintaining 

ongoing, routine communication with and oversight of grantees to help inform their scientific 

programs and ensure they are meeting goals and objectives. Program officers use the HHS 
Page | 15 

Grants Policy Administration Manual to provide consistent oversight across projects. Risk 

assessments are conducted to locate poorly performing grantees, with additional oversight and 

technical support provided as needed. Though rare, findings of ongoing poor performance can 

lead to a discontinuation of funding to a grantee.

Funding Overview

The allocation of FY 2022 grant funds for the 11 funding mechanisms discussed above is shown 

in Tables 2 and 3. Table 3 includes the funding for only the NIDILRR-funded Model Systems 

grants for SCI, TBI and Burn. For each funding mechanism, the table includes the number of 

new and continuation awards. NIDILRR’s overall grant allocations across all 11 funding 

mechanisms totaled $110,638,232 for FY 2022. NIDILRR awarded $5,768,061 in contracts and 

other support activities for FY 2022.

Table 2: NIDILRR Funding and Awards, FY 2022

Funding Mechanism 

(NIDILRR-Funded 

Centers and Projects)

Award Type (NIDILRRFunded Centers and 

Projects)

FY 2022 Number of 

Awards

Grant Amount in 

Thousands of Dollars

RRTC Continuations 22 19,247

RRTC New Awards 2 1,924

RERC Continuations 14 12,947

RERC New Awards 3 2,774

DRRP Continuations 24 11,965

DRRP New Awards 1 499

ADA Network Continuations 10 10,924

ADA Network New Awards 1 500

SBIR Continuations 4 1,150

SBIR New Awards 14 2,149

KT Continuations 8 2,904

KT New Awards 1 749

FIP Continuations 33 6,596

FIP New Awards 18 3,591

ARRT Continuations 15 2,591
Page | 16 

Funding Mechanism 

(NIDILRR-Funded 

Centers and Projects)

Award Type (NIDILRRFunded Centers and 

Projects)

FY 2022 Number of 

Awards

Grant Amount in 

Thousands of Dollars

ARRT New Awards 3 649

Switzer Fellowships New Awards (1-year 

grants)

8 570

Section 21 Continuations 5 1,624

Section 21 New Awards 4 799

Total All Award Types 190 84,152

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.

Table 3: NIDILRR Model Systems Funding and Awards, FY 2022

Funding Mechanism 

(NIDILRR-Funded 

Centers and

Projects)

Award Type (NIDILRRFunded Centers and 

Projects)

FY 2022

Number of

Awards

Grant Amount 

In Thousands of 

Dollars 

SCI Continuations 15 7,192

SCI New Awards 6 3,452

TBI Continuations 2 1,292

TBI New Awards 17 7,299

Burn Continuations 11 5,440

Burn New Awards 4 1,799

Total All Award Types 55 26,474

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.

Exhibits 2 and 3 illustrate the distribution of funded research and development grant projects in 

FY 2022 across NIDILRR’s three domains: health and function, community living and 

participation, and employment. “Cross-cutting” is a composite category used in the APR to 

describe projects that reflect two or more domains. Roughly 49% of development projects and 

about 35% of research projects were described as cross-cutting. A “research project” is defined 

by NIDILRR as “an intensive systematic study, based on a clear hypothesis or research question 

that is directed toward producing new scientific knowledge about the subject or problem being 

studied.” A “development project” is defined as “the use of knowledge and understanding 

gained from research to create materials, devices, systems, or methods beneficial to the target 
Page | 17

population, including design and development of prototypes and processes.”
Page | 18 

Exhibit 2: Research Grant Projects by Domain, FY 2022

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. 2022 Annual Performance Reports. “Program 

Performance Report Table 9.”

Exhibit 3: Development Grant Projects by Domain, FY 2022

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. 2022 Annual Performance Reports. “Program 

Performance Report Table 11.”
Page | 19 

Grantee Activities and Progress

ACL collects output data through the APR. Grantees are required to report each output from 

their funded activities in one of four categories: publications; tools, measures, and intervention 

protocols; technology products and devices; and informational products. The categories’ 

outputs are as follows:

• Publications are documents directly funded by a grantee’s current award. Publications 

include journal articles, periodicals, web journals, proceedings from meetings and 

symposia, books or book chapters, monographs, abstracts, technical or research 

reports, and reviews. Within this output category are peer-reviewed and non-peerreviewed publications.

• Tools, measures, and intervention protocols include instruments or processes created 

to acquire quantitative or qualitative information, knowledge, or data on a specific 

disability or rehabilitation issue as well as research-based protocols for delivering 

interventions to specific target populations of people with disabilities.

• Technology products and devices are developed, modified, tested, or evaluated by the 

grantee. This category refers to any technology product or device developed under the 

award that the grantee disseminated or delivered to external audiences during the 

current reporting period.

• Information products refer to items such as training manuals/curricula, fact sheets, 

newsletters, audiovisual materials, marketing tools, educational aids, websites, 

presentations, and other forms of disseminated information.

Exhibit 4 compares the number of output products produced by grantees within each category 

type in FY 2022. Additional detail has been provided for the category of publications, with peerreviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications being reported separately.
Page | 20 

Exhibit 4: Total Outputs Produced by All Grantees Across All Program Mechanisms, by Product 

Type, FY 2022

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on 

Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. 2022 Annual Performance Reports. “Program 

Performance Report Tables 18–22.”

Data obtained through the 2022 APR show that NIDILRR awarded 245 grantees during FY 2022, 

totaling $110,638,232, which supported 1,569 unique projects across all program mechanisms. 

These projects reflect the breadth of disability and rehabilitation research within the agency’s 

outcome domains of community living and participation, health and function, and employment. 

The knowledge and products that are generated by ACL-sponsored research and development 

grants have a wide variety of important impacts in the field. The summaries that follow provide 

examples of the outcomes and impacts that resulted from NIDILRR program investments.

Additional information concerning these projects is available through the National 

Rehabilitation Information Center website (http://www.naric.com/).

Sampling of Key Accomplishments by Funded Researchers

ACL-funded researchers conduct a myriad of coordinated, integrated, and advanced programs 

of research, training, and information dissemination in content areas that are primarily 

specified by NIDILRR. Areas of focus include the improvement of rehabilitation methodology 

and service delivery systems; the improvement of health and functioning; and the promotion of 

employment, independent living, family support, and economic and social self-sufficiency for 

individuals with disabilities. ACL-funded training and capacity-building RRTCs provide training— 

including graduate, pre-service, and in-service training—to build capacity for disability and 

rehabilitation research. They also serve as centers of national excellence in rehabilitation 

research. Awards are normally made for a 5-year period.
Page | 21 

The following are examples of accomplishments reported by grantees in FY 2022:

An Interactive 3D Map for People With Visual Impairments (Grant # 90RE5024) 

The RERC on Blindness and Low Vision at the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute developed 

technology in the Tactile Graphics Helper project, which has been combined with the CamIO 

project (which has received funding from both NIDILRR and National Eye Institute of the 

National Institutes of Health [NEI/NIH], and renewed funding from NEI/NIH in 2022), to be used 

as the foundation for a new interactive 3D map at the Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto,

California, called the “Magic Map.” The Magic Map is a 1/100 scale 3D bronze representation

of the playground, which includes over 70 play structures organized into multiple play zones 

and paths. In December 2022, the bronze map was installed at the playground, along with an 

iPad running CamIO mounted above the map and a pointing stylus tethered to the map. When 

the stylus tip is pointed at a specific feature on the map, the name of the feature and 

information about it is read aloud in audio, making the map fully accessible to people with 

visual impairments. The Magic Map increases the accessibility of the playground to visitors with 

visual impairments, allowing them to preview the layout of the playground and learn about the

names and functions of the play structures. Additionally, this accessibility option requires no 

ability to read braille. Now that the system has been installed, adoption will begin when the 

Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto reopens in January 2023.

Development and Evaluation of a Tool for Assisting Content Creators in Making PDF Files 

More Accessible (Grant # 90REGE0008)

The Inclusive Information and Communications Technology (ICT) RERC at University of 

Maryland, College Park, is currently working with Adobe to improve software tools to create 

accessible Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. The collaboration involves both the 

research and the product divisions of the Adobe company on creating/improving tools for 

making PDF files accessible. Trillions of online documents are available in PDF, but only a very 

small fraction of them are accessible to people who use assistive technologies like screen 

readers, including those who are blind or have low vision. Documents in PDF format are harder 

to make accessible than documents in other formats because the tools available to assist 

content creators are complicated and difficult to use. To address these challenges, the Inclusive 

ICT RERC and Adobe jointly created Ally, a new tool to assist content creators in remediating 

their PDF files for accessibility. Ally was almost twice as fast and three times as accurate in 

remediating PDF files for accessibility, and portions of the Ally tool will be included in future 

Adobe products. The current work in this area focuses on the remediation process for PDF 

forms in government and education. Additionally, the Inclusive ICT RERC published a 2022 

journal article about the development of Ally, “Development and Evaluation of a Tool for

Assisting Content Creators in Making PDF Files More Accessible.” Making PDF documents 
Page | 22 

accessible to those with print disabilities is critical for removing barriers to government, 

education, science, commerce, and even voting.

Fact Sheet on WIOA Services for Youth and Young Adults With Disabilities (Grant #

90RTEM0005) 

The WIOA, P.L. 113-128, 2014, mandates services for youth and young adults (ages 14–24) with 

disabilities, including those with psychiatric disabilities or mental health conditions, to help 

them prepare for and obtain jobs and pursue careers that offer competitive salaries and 

benefits. The Learning and Working During the Transition to Adulthood RRTC at the University 

of Massachusetts Chan Medical School developed a fact sheet, WIOA: New Law Helps Youth &

Young Adults Get Jobs: What Families Need to Know, that provides information on who is 

eligible to receive WIOA youth services, where youth and young adults with disabilities can 

access services, and what services are available. Through state-of-the-science KT processes, this 

RRTC is facilitating capacity-building for service providers, moving findings into practice and 

policy, and preparing the future research workforce in this area. Currently, Kim Osmani, Ph.D., 

Extension Associate from the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell 

University, is using the fact sheet in her New York State trainings with providers.

Impact of State Long-Term Services and Supports on Levels of Community Participation and 

Life Satisfaction for People with TBI (Grant # 90DPTB0001) 

While a substantial amount of literature has examined the effects of individual and family-level 

factors on outcomes following TBI, minimal attention has been directed to the potential 

influence of the larger environmental context on outcomes. The Ohio Regional TBI Model

System Center at Ohio State University conducted a study—“Do State Supports for Persons

With Brain Injury Affect Outcomes in the 5 Years Following Acute Rehabilitation?”—that 

investigates the effects of state-level resources and supports as an environmental factor 

influencing long-term outcomes from TBI using data from the TBI Model Systems National 

Database funded by NIDILRR. The researchers examined the effects of state-level supports and 

resources on persons in their first 5 years after rehabilitation for moderate and severe TBI. The 

primary hypothesis was that community participation, global functioning, and life satisfaction 

will be higher on average among people with TBI living in states with more brain-injury-specific 

programs and resources and better long-term care services and supports (LTSS). The 

researchers found that state supports have a small but significant impact on community 

participation and life satisfaction. The most consistent finding indicated that states with better 

LTSS had higher levels of community participation and life satisfaction on average for people 

with TBI over and above individual-level differences and fluctuations in these outcomes over 

time. There was also indication that more brain-injury-specific supports, as reflected in per 

capita brain injury trust fund revenues, result in better participation in the community, an 

effect which was more pronounced as a person was further post-injury. In states that had been 
Page | 23 

long-term recipients of federal Health Resources and Services Administration/ACL TBI State 

Partnership funding, persons with more severe cognitive impairment did better over time than 

people in states that had not received this funding.

Model System Knowledge Translation Center: Award-Winning, Trusted Source of Consumer 

Information in Burn Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, and Traumatic Brain Injury (Grant # 90DPKT0009) 

The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) is a KT project funded, in part, to 

produce consumer materials that are based on the best available research findings. In 

collaboration with the SCI, TBI, and Burn Model Systems Centers, the MSKTC produced 

research-based consumer fact sheets, educational videos, narrated slides, infocomics, and 

other informational materials on various topics directly relevant to the lives of people with 

these traumatic injuries. These resources are presented in language that all users can read and 

understand, in both English and Spanish, and hosted on the MSKTC website that has become 

the go-to source for consumers seeking trustworthy information over the years. During FY 

2022, the MSKTC website received over 1,700,000 visitors, and the top 10 fact sheets alone 

were downloaded over 825,000 times. The MSKTC also received numerous awards over the 

years, recognizing the quality of the information materials they produced. Most recently, the 

MSKTC received a Silver Digital Health Award for their Respiratory Health and Spinal Cord Injury 

infocomic and a Bronze Digital Health Award for the Itchy Skin After Burn Injury infocomic.

Nutrition and Exercise for Wellness and Recovery (NEW-R) Curriculum for People With 

Psychiatric Disabilities (Grant # 90RTHF0004) 

The University of Illinois at Chicago Practice, Policy, & Science Exchange for Health and 

Wellness, established through the RRTC on Health and Function of People with Psychiatric 

Disabilities, has developed a new curriculum, the Nutrition and Exercise for Wellness and 

Recovery (NEW-R), which helps people with mental illnesses gain new knowledge and skills for 

healthier eating and physical activity. During this reporting period, NEW-R has been adopted by 

two organizations. Australia’s Queensland Government Metro North Health System has 

adopted this curriculum as part of their series on Healthy Living. The agency is using this 

curriculum to educate clients about how diet, exercise, and adoption of healthier lifestyles can 

enhance their health and recovery. The second organization to adopt this curriculum is Clay 

Behavioral Health Center in Florida, where this curriculum is used in virtual group sessions 

with outpatient clients to improve overall wellness and nutrition to promote recovery.

Reducing Costs for Families and States by Increasing Access to Home- and Community-Based 

Services (Grant # 90RTCP0004) 

The Senate Aging Committee held a hearing on March 23, 2022, on the importance of homeand community-based services (HCBS) called “An Economy That Cares: The Importance of
Page | 24 

Home-Based Services.” The RRTC on Community Living Policy at the Lurie Institute at

Brandeis University developed a brief, Reducing Costs for Families and States by Increasing 

Access to Home- and Community-Based Services. This brief was distributed to staff and 

submitted in the Congressional Record for the hearing, and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) 

highlighted the brief and the Community Living Policy Center in his closing remarks. Unmet 

needs and long waiting lists for Medicaid HCBS place significant strain and economic burden 

on individuals with disabilities and their families. Even among individuals receiving Medicaid 

HCBS there are high levels of unmet needs for services. When individuals do not have needed 

HCBS, their health and community living outcomes are worse. Moreover, the health and

economic well-being of family caregivers erode, often resulting in undesirable placements in 

more costly nursing home and institutional settings. This brief describes ways in which 

increased access to HCBS reduces costs for families and states.

Research Capacity Building for Minority-Serving Institutions (Grant # 90RTST0001) 

The Langston University RRTC on Research and Capacity Building for Minority Entities engages 

MSIs in generating new knowledge leading to improved outcomes for persons with disabilities 

from traditionally underserved racial and ethnic populations and enhancing research capacity 

and infrastructure. The RRTC works with various MSIs to strengthen their faculty scholars’ and 

students’ research skills and address research infrastructure challenges. This grantee is 

conducting research that leads to strategies for enhancing research capacity of investigators 

from MSIs. Their work involves a longitudinal study on the Institutional Research Capacity 

Building & Infrastructure Model (IRCBIM). North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State 

University is one of five MSIs participating in the study. Participants receive technical assistance 

to enhance faculty Fellows’ research skills and enhance the institutions’ research infrastructure 

and culture. As a result of the capacity building received through the study, North Carolina 

Agricultural and Technical State University received a grant award under the Section 21 FIP–MSI 

competition. The IRCBIM intervention has promising implications for enhancing MSI 

participation in disability and rehabilitation research.

Setting the National Target for Recovery of People with TBI (Grant # 90DPTB0018) 

Healthy People 2030, the nation’s current 10-year plan for addressing the most critical public 

health priorities, has accepted an objective for the recovery of individuals with TBI that was 

proposed by a small work group led by NIDILRR’s TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) National Data 

and Statistical Center. This objective is to “Increase the percentage of adults who can resume

more than half of their preinjury activities (with or without supports) 5 years after receiving 

acute inpatient rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury.” The objective points to the critical 

importance of access to inpatient rehabilitation and to community-based services and supports 

for people with chronic brain injury. The TBIMS National Database is the approved data source 
Page | 25 

for monitoring progress toward this objective over the coming decade. This database is the 

product of NIDILRR’s TBIMS Centers Program and is managed by the TBIMS National Data and 

Statistical Center.

Tables, Maps, and Narrative of Statistics for Rural Areas (Grant # 90RTCP0002) 

People with disabilities living in rural areas experience a variety of different disparities in 

relation to their urban counterparts. However, understanding the experiences of people with 

disabilities living in rural areas has been limited, especially due to the difficulty of accessing

rural data. The RRTC on Disability in Rural Communities at the University of Montana developed 

rural tables, maps, and narrative of statistics for rural areas. These statistics were included in 

the Annual Disability Statistics Compendium released by the RRTC on Disability Statistics and 

Demographics (StatsRRTC) at the University of New Hampshire. Additionally, this center 

provided updated maps for all 50 states via the Disability Data Lookup Tool on the center’s 

website that uses current American Community Survey data.

Telemedicine Barriers for Persons With Disabilities (Grant # 90DP0092) 

The Southwest ADA Center addressed telemedicine barriers for persons with disabilities in a 

publication entitled “Telemedicine Barriers and Challenges for Persons with Disabilities: 

COVID- 19 and Beyond.” The Southwest ADA National Network Regional Center provides 

training and technical assistance to benefit individuals and entities with rights and 

responsibilities under the ADA. In addition, this center conducts research into access barriers 

experienced by people with disabilities. This article describes key systematic challenges that 

need to be addressed to ensure that telemedicine is available and fully accessible to individuals 

with disabilities. During this reporting period, the publication has been cited by several 

researchers conducting studies in accessible telehealth, and it has implications for improving 

the health outcomes for persons with disabilities in a new era of healthcare delivery.

Uptake of the AAC Learning Center and AAC Learning Center Moodle (Grant # 90REGE0014) 

To address the lack of rehabilitation and education professionals with competencies in 

evidence-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) services, the RERC on AAC

at the Pennsylvania State University developed, evaluated, and made freely available online 

educational resources to increase AAC capacity: the AAC Learning Center and the AAC Learning 

Center Moodle.

The AAC Learning Center is freely available to all stakeholders, including preservice students, inservice professionals, families, etc. It includes webcasts on the experiences and perspectives of 

individuals who rely on AAC and their families as well as webcasts by leading AAC researchers 

and practitioners to support the translation of research to evidence-based practice to improve 

outcomes for individuals with complex communication needs. Overall, the webcasts at the AAC 
Page | 26 

Learning Center have achieved substantial uptake and adoption in the field with more than 

72,000 views during the reporting period.

The AAC Learning Center Moodle is designed specifically to support preservice instruction and 

continuing education in AAC for education and rehabilitation professionals (e.g., speech

language pathologists, occupational therapists, special education teachers, rehabilitation 

engineers). The instructional resources include webcasts, related readings, learning activities, 

and quizzes. The AAC Learning Center Moodle currently has over 8,700 registered users from 81 

different colleges and universities in over 21 countries, including the United States, Australia, 

Canada, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. Moreover, the participants have 

demonstrated increased knowledge and competencies in AAC as a result of their completion of 

the instructional modules. Registered users have earned more than 17,000 certificates of 

completion, some learners having completed certificates for more than one module. As a

result, individuals with complex communication needs have increased access to evidence-based 

AAC services and improved access to the communication tools they require to participate 

successfully in education, employment, healthcare, and community living.

ADA National Network

One of ACL’s largest investments is in the ADA National Network, which consists of 10 regional 

centers that provide information, training, and technical assistance to individuals, businesses, 

and agencies with rights and responsibilities under the ADA. The network also includes research 

and KT components, which are carried out by two network grantees: the ADA National Network

Collaborative Research Project and the ADA National Network KT Center, respectively.

Knowledge translation efforts in the ADA National Network are led by the ADA KT Center. This 

center has three primary goals: increase efficiency and impact by serving as a central resource 

to support the development, coordination, and deployment of ADA information, training, 

technical assistance, and capacity-building activities across the ADA National Network; increase 

awareness and use of ADA research findings to inform practice; and improve understanding of 

stakeholders’ needs for and receipt of ADA services.

ADA National Network grantees are highly responsive to the community, providing advice, 

information, technical assistance, and training through multiple modalities. In FY 2022, the 

centers received 15,752 technical assistance inquiries from the public. Exhibit 5 presents the 

modalities used to provide technical assistance in response to these questions.
Page | 27 

Exhibit 5: Inquiry Response

The 10 ADA National Network Centers conducted 1,342 training activities, including customized 

training presentations, training courses, and conferences, impacting 94,210 individuals during 

the 2022 APR reporting period (June 1, 2021, through May 31, 2022). Audiences included 

service providers, individuals with disabilities and their families, business groups, state and local 

government agencies, architects and design professionals, and other professional groups.

Worth noting, the ADA National Network Centers added a tag to their database to capture and 

categorize data calls related to COVID and long COVID. From January 1, 2020, to December 14, 

2022, there were 3,898 COVID-related calls received by the ADA centers, and of those calls, 88 

(2.26%) were related to long COVID. The most frequent aspect of ADA asked about in relation 

to long COVID was Title I (Employment)—more specifically, reasonable accommodations (53% 

of TA interactions), and enforcement (20% of TA interactions).

In addition to training and technical assistance, the ADA National Network and its regional 

centers produce numerous products to aid in disseminating information to the public, 

employers, and individuals with disabilities about their rights and responsibilities. Table 4 shows 

the types and number of times a product was disseminated.
Page | 28 

Table 4:Product Dissemination

Type Number Disseminated

Journal Articles 23

Project Publications 131,055

Video and Audio Tapes 61,351

CDs and DVDs 176

Books or Book Chapters 968

Bulletins, Newsletters, or Fact Sheets 815,049

Research Reports and Conference Proceedings 136

Courses 323,901

Webinars, Web Series, or Social Media Posts 1,472,415

Training Materials 7,831

Research Fellowship Program (Mary E. Switzer Fellowship Program)

The Mary E. Switzer Fellowship Program seeks to increase capacity in rehabilitation research by 

giving qualified individual researchers, including individuals with disabilities, the opportunity to 

develop new ideas and further their research expertise. Awards go directly to individuals, not 

their institutions, enabling fellows to pursue independent research and training activities.

Distinguished fellows are seasoned in their careers, must hold a doctorate or comparable 

academic status, and have had 7 or more years of experience relevant to rehabilitation 

research. Merit fellowships are given to persons with rehabilitation research experience who do 

not meet the qualifications for distinguished fellowships, usually because they are in earlier 

stages of their careers. Fellows work for 1 year on an independent research project of their 

design. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply for each of these fellowships.

Seven Switzer Fellowships were awarded in fall 2021, with a total of 12 fellows submitting 

annual or final performance reports in 2021. Current Switzer Fellows (with fellowships awarded 

in 2022, plus older grants that are in an extension period) are displayed in Table 5. 
Page | 29

Table 5: Current Switzer Fellows and Project Titles

Name Project Title

Hao Su (2022) Biomechanical Benefits of Lightweight Wearable Robots for CommunityBased Mobility Assistance of Children With Crouch Gait From Cerebral 

Palsy

Michelle S Ballan

(2022)

Advancing Evidence-Informed Responses to Intimate Partner

Violence Among Women With Disabilities

Emre Umucu (2022) Evaluating an Online Character Strengths Intervention to Improve WellBeing and Adjustment to College in Veterans With Disabilities

in Higher Education

Ayse G Zengul (2022) Personalized Nutrition Recommendation Expert System (PNRES) for People 

with Physical Disabilities

Hannah G Ginn (2022) Securing Intimate Citizenship: The Effect of Capacity to Sexual Consent 

Policies and Practices on the Right of Women With Intellectual Disability to 

Sexual Relationships

Hussaini Zandam (2022) Racial and Ethnic Healthcare Disparities Associated With Multiple Chronic 

Conditions Among People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 

in the United States

Jessica P Conklin (2022) Sociocultural Determinants of Recovery, Health, and Community 

Participation in Underserved Asian American Rehabilitation Populations

Shijun Yan (2022) Increasing the Error of Trunk Movements During Walking Facilitates Motor 

Learning in Trunk Postural Control in Children With Cerebral Palsy

Yina M Quique (2022) Using Open-Source Software to Improve Communication for Daily Life 

Participation in Spanish Speakers With Aphasia

Nazanin Heydarian 

(Extension)

Characterizing Diabetes Education and Self-Management Practices

of Blind Adults

Jia Rung Wu (Extension) Evaluation of an Extended and Refined Health Action Process Approach as 

a Model of Health Promotion for People With Chronic Health Conditions 

and Disabilities During and After the COVID-19

Pandemic

Brielle C Stark 

(Extension)

Characterizing Inner Speech in Aphasia
Page | 30 

Ongoing Activities

The accomplishments presented are a small sample of the accomplishments realized as a result 

of the research and development sponsored by ACL. The accomplishments were chosen to 

emphasize NIDILRR programs’ broad impact on individuals with disabilities, the families and 

care communities that support them, and society as a whole. Moving forward, ACL will 

continue to sponsor rigorous research that is relevant to the needs and experiences of 

individuals with sensory, mental, physical, and developmental/intellectual disabilities.

ACL will also focus on implementing and integrating the visions of the appointed NIDILRR 

director and the ACL administrator to NIDILRR programs. ACL published NIDILRR’s FY 2018–

2023 Long-Range Plan in March 2019. Work is currently underway to draft NIDILRR’s new longrange plan, which will describe NIDILRR’s programmatic framework, priorities and research 

agenda for FYs 2024–2028.

Strategic partnerships with other agencies in HHS and across the federal government have been 

instrumental in advancing ACL’s and NIDILRR’s missions. ACL will build on its historical 

collaborations to identify best practices, conduct cosponsored research, and address shared 

goals. NIDILRR’s director will continue to serve as the chair of the Interagency Committee on 

Disability Research, a federal partnership charged to promote a cohesive, strategic federal 

program of disability, rehabilitation, and independent living research; broker partnerships; and 

facilitate coordination and collaboration among federal departments and agencies conducting 

such research. ACL intends to continue to lead and contribute to the advancement of the goals 

and objectives set forth in the government-wide disability and rehabilitation research strategic 

plan and focus initiatives around three key target areas: disability data and statistics, Long 

COVID, and equity and inclusion.