NIDRR has provided leadership in research that has introduced a new conceptual foundation for organizing and interpreting the phenomenon of disability—a new paradigm of disability. The paradigm provides a way to apply scientific research to help people with disabilities achieve their goals and address their concerns. This disability paradigm, which undergirds NIDRR’s future research strategy, maintains that disability is a product of an interaction between characteristics of an individual (e.g., conditions and impairments, functional status, or personal and socioeconomic qualities) and characteristics of the natural, built, cultural, and social environments. The new paradigm is integrative and holistic, focusing on the whole person functioning in his or her environment. The paradigm recognizes the contextual aspect of disability—the dynamic interaction between individual and environment. Conversely, the old paradigm, which the new paradigm replaces, presented disability as the result of a deficit(s) in an individual that prevented the individual from performing certain functions or activities.
The new paradigm has significant implications for NIDRR’s research agenda during the next decade. Examples include:
- changes in the way disability is defined and conceptualized;
- new approaches for measuring and counting disability, including changes in the methods for conducting demographic studies and national surveys to reflect the new definitions or concepts;
- changes in the focus of research, such as studies of the dynamic interplay between an individual and the environment and of the adapting process by the society and the individual; and
- changes in the way research is managed and conducted.
Research also must focus on the development and evaluation of environmental options in the built environment and the communications environment. Additionally, researchers need to address critical concerns that affect people with a wide range of disabilities. These factors include general fiscal and economic policy issues as well as specific policies on employment, the delivery and financing of health care, income support, transportation, social services, telecommunications, institutionalization, education, and long-term care.
The Emerging Universe of Disability
