User-Friendly Materials Facilitate Communication

The NCDDR will develop user-friendly written guides, pamphlets and periodic communications in addition to this quarterly newsletter. All technical assistance materials developed by the NCDDR will be available in a variety of accessible formats.

Typical formats include paper (regular and large print), electronic data, braille, CD-ROM, and audio. However, NCDDR staff recognize that accessibility is determined by the user, not the originator of the information. If additional formats are requested, every effort will be made to create the information in the requested format. Each format will be available through various modes of distribution. Examples of distribution modes include U. S. mail, facsimile machine transmission (FAX), telephone or text telephone, computer diskette, and audiotape.

One of the most exciting means of distribution that NCDDR will be using is the Internet. The NCDDR Web site has the URL http://www.ncddr.org/. The Internet location will serve many purposes such as access to this quarterly newsletter, summaries of project findings, and examples of new and innovative products resulting from NIDRR-funded research. Also planned are informative and challenging interactive sessions that will allow participants to exchange thoughts, ideas, issues and concerns that can only enhance future directions and outcomes of disability research.

Utilizing these approaches to accessibility for target audiences, NCDDR staff will develop a series of four guides designed to assist NIDRR grantees in assessing their dissemination activities and planning improvements.

The first guide will provide an introduction to issues and concerns about dissemination and highlight ways that research outcomes are used by particular target audiences. The second guide will define dissemination as a complex process that begins at the earliest stages of planning and development, not after the completion of a research project.

Dissemination also extends beyond mere distribution of information to facilitating the use of research outcomes. The third guide will outline the principal elements of dissemination: the message, its source, its context, its target audiences, and media used in reaching those target audiences. Finally, the fourth guide will focus on dissemination media and formats. The guide will address issues of availability and accessibility, provide strategies for matching target audiences with their preferred information channels and discuss cost-effective approaches to distribute information in accessible formats.

The guide will also explore the latest in electronic media that can be used to reach target audiences.

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NIDRR Project Number: H133A990008
Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 January 2008 at 04:13 PM,
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