About Us
About Us
The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities is a collaborative research and advocacy project that aims to support parents with disabilities. We are housed at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University and collaborate with other institutions, including the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Universities of Michigan and of Cincinnati, Arizona State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Gallaudet University.
We combine research expertise and first-hand experience to create a comprehensive resource for a variety of stakeholders, including parents, family members, clinicians, policymakers and disabled parents. The Center is guided by an advisory board composed of parents with disabilities or family members of parents with disabilities to ensure that our work places their needs at the forefront.
About Our Research Work
The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities is overseeing six ongoing research projects. We will continually update this page as resources from these projects become available.
The research projects comprise the following. You may read more about each of our research projects and about our overall research plans here.
Research Project 1a: Analysis of large-scale national datasets to inform targeted recommendations for policies and programs across and within disability groups, systems, and service sectors, particularly for racial and ethnic minority disabled parents and their families.
Research Project 1b: Analysis of the termination of parental rights laws of the fifty states and the District of Columbia; interviews with parent attorneys to explore the impact of these laws on parents with disabilities, including parents from racial and ethnic minorities.
Research Project 2a: Adaptation of the existing ParentingWell intervention, a routine approach to adult behavioral healthcare that centers parenting experiences and considerations, for racially and ethnically diverse parents with psychiatric disabilities.
Research Project 2b: Development and testing of the feasibility and acceptability of a navigational literacy peer support program for parents with intellectual disabilities (Empowered Disabled Parenting).
Research Project 2c: Development and testing of the feasibility and acceptability of a navigational literacy peer support program for Deaf parents (Deaf Empowered Parenting).
Research Project 2d: Development and testing of a practice change intervention to change the knowledge and practices of child welfare workers.