December 3^rd is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly as an observance which aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and to mobilize support for the dignity, rights, and well-being of persons with disabilities. Since 1992, the UN has reaffirmed the resolution and sets new themes each year for the observance. This year’s theme is United in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with, and by persons with disabilities. In 2015, the UN identified 17 goals to transform the world for people with disabilities, including reducing poverty, improving health and wellbeing, ensuring access to quality education and work, and much more. Among these are five goals that specifically reference people with disabilities, related to education, growth and employment, inequality, accessibility of human settlements, as well as data collection and monitoring of the SDGs. Many of the research and development projects funded by NIDILRR aim to address issues raised in the SDGs. Here are just a few:

Goal 4: Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promotion of Life-Long Learning Opportunities for All.

• Helping Youth on the Path to Employment: Creating Economic Self-Sufficiency develops and tests a manual-based intervention to support transition-aged youth and young adults with mental health conditions to complete their education and develop their careers.
• CrossingPoints High Tide develops, tests, and refines a model of off-campus integrated community living and participation for students with intellectual disabilities attending the CrossingPoints secondary program at the University of Alabama.

Goal 8: Sustained, Inclusive, and Sustainable Economic Growth; Full and Productive Employment; and Decent Work for All.

• Reclaiming Employment is evaluating a personalized business coaching and education platform that supports people with psychiatric disabilities to pursue self-employment and entrepreneurship.
• Securing Employment and Economic Keys to Stability (SEEKS) works with Centers for Independent Living to remove barriers experienced by people with disabilities leading to lower rates of employment, educational achievement, and community participation, and higher poverty rates.

Goal 10: Reduce Inequality Within and Among Countries by Empowering and Promoting the Social, Economic, and Political Inclusion of All.

• Being Needed: Building Social Connections that Matter to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness aims to reduce isolation and loneliness for adults with serious mental illnesses by identifying the role of mattering in social isolation and refining and testing an intervention to enhance connectedness and feelings of mattering.
• Community Living Equity Center focuses on reducing community living disparities for people of color and other intersecting identities. The center generates new knowledge about these disparities, develops or locates initiatives or promising practices to address disparities, and serves as a national resource for research that is inclusive of communities of color.

Goal 11:  Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, and Sustainable.

• Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Physical Access and Transportation advances accessibility and universal design across built environments and along the travel chain through an integrated research, development, and deployment program
• Technologies to Support Aging Among People with Long-Term Disabilities aims to meet the needs of people with long-term disabilities where they live, work, and play. The center conducts advanced engineering research and development of innovative technologies to support aging with a disability in the home and in the community.

Goal 17: Enhance Capacity-Building to Significantly Increase the Availability of High-Quality, Timely, and Reliable Data That Is Also Disaggregated by Disability.

• The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics advances the frontiers in the production and utilization of disability data and statistics to better inform policies and programs that influence the lives of people with disabilities.
• Using the National Survey on Health and Disability Panel to Document the COVID-19 Pandemic Experiences of Working-Age Americans with Disabilities explores and documents the COVID-19 pandemic-related experiences of people with disabilities and suggests meaningful interventions and policy initiatives to support their health and function, employment, and opportunities for community living.

These are just a few examples of current research and development projects whose work may help communities around the world meet or surpass their goals for equitably participation of people with disabilities. Visit the NIDILRR Program Database to learn more about these and other current and completed projects, or connect with an information specialist to explore our databases further!