Increasing the Participation of Minority-serving Institutions in the Research in Disabilities Education Program

Quality Education For Minorities Network, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The "Increasing the Participation of Minority-serving Institutions in the Research in Disabilities Education Program" project will provide technical assistance to enhance disability support services at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) with STEM programs and to increase the participation of MSIs in the NSF's Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program. The technical assistance will be provided in the form of a workshop to assist institutional teams in expanding and enhancing STEM focused disability support services and in further developing ideas for proposals they plan to submit to the FY 2009 RDE competition. Specifically, QEM is seeking support to conduct a two-day workshop in the fall of 2008, for three-person teams from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). The two-day workshop will be designed to accommodate 20 three-person institutional teams. Each team must include: (1) a STEM faculty member from an eligible institution; (2) the coordinator or other officer for the institution's student support services whose responsibilities include providing support to students with disabilities; and (3) a member of the institution's Education/Special Education faculty. The goals of the workshop are as follows: a) To discuss the specific services and resources available to students with disabilities on each of the participating campuses and the use of these services and resources by students; b) To identify effective strategies used on the respective campuses to ensure that students with disabilities have access to all campus facilities as well as to instructional materials, tutorial assistance, and other resources, including assistive technologies to support their academic study; c) To identify barriers to providing needed services and support on the respective campuses and to discuss ways those barriers might be reduced/eliminated; and d) To review the latest program solicitation for NSF's Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) Program; review selected abstracts of currently active RDE-funded projects; hear presentations by RDE-funded project directors on effective strategies; and discuss the participating teams' preliminary ideas for potential RDE proposals. This project includes consultants who are knowledgeable about students with disabilities in post-secondary STEM education and who are experts in the area of services provided by post-secondary institutions for students with disabilities. An independent evaluator will assess the outcomes and impacts of this project, and project dissemination will include diffusion of information via an accessible web-site that can be easily used by people with disabilities.