The Institute on Disability IOD, who are committed to promote full access, equal opportunities, and participation for all persons by strengthening communities and advancing policy and systems change, promising practices, education, and research.
The IOD envisions a future where all people, including individuals living with disabilities, are fully engaged members of communities and where culturally appropriate supports that lead to independence, productivity, and a satisfying quality of life are available to individuals and families across the life span.
The IOD values the participation of people with disabilities, the community, family members, and a culturally diverse membership in its governance and research, teaching, and service activities. The IOD works to advance principles of choice, family and consumer-directed supports, community inclusion and cultural competence throughout the life span.
The IOD leverages the knowledge, wisdom, and experience of both the community and its faculty and staff to address the social, educational, economic, and environmental barriers challenging individuals with disabilities and their families.
Through research, the IOD seeks universalistic rather than exceptionalistic solutions to community problems—solutions that advance the ability of communities to ensure that all of their members are fully engaged, including persons living with disabilities and their families—and the IOD seeks to include the perspectives of people who are often underrepresented or overlooked in framing agendas and seeking solutions. The cornerstone of the IOD’s scholarship is the partnerships between communities and the IOD as an academic institution. The IOD's scholarship includes research, evaluation, and knowledge translation achieved through a range of dissemination activities and strategies.
The IOD collaborates with several academic and research groups in New Hampshire and works closely with local, state, and federal agencies to advance policies and practices that improve the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities and their families.
The primary academic activities of the Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) serve as interlinked and mutually reinforcing components of engaged scholarship. Each activity links to and strengthens the others to form a continuous feedback loop in a way that both helps preserve and honor the long academic tradition of a land grant university and also provides a powerful platform for contemporary academic activities such as capacity building and systems change within New Hampshire and beyond.
Highlights of our academic accomplishments include:
- Administering 57 grants and contracts;
- Producing more than 59 publications and other creative work;
- Conducting 133 peer-reviewed and invited presentations;
- Engaging in 69 teaching activities, including conducting UNH courses and guest lectures; and
- Participating in over 132 community service activities, including activities at the departmental, college, university, and community level.
See http://www.iod.unh.edu/Research/view-all.aspx for IOD research publications and more on assistive technology, community living, health and genetics, and inclusive education..