The fifth cohort of student researchers in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Analyzing the Relationship between Disability, Rehabilitation, and Work (ARDRAW) Small Grant Program has been selected. SSA’s ARDRAW Small Grant Program is a 1-year $10,000 stipend program awarded to graduate-level students to conduct supervised independent research designed to foster new analysis of work, rehabilitation, and disability issues, which may develop innovative and fresh perspectives on disability. ARDRAW focuses on research relevant to SSA’s work incentives and employment supports—specifically rehabilitation, work, and the disability program.

Fifteen students have been selected to conduct independent research projects to assist Social Security policymakers in better understanding the relationship between disability, rehabilitation, and return to work. Teams of researchers from Policy Research, Inc., partner universities, and SSA reviewed students’ proposals on a range of criteria, including relevance to SSA’s programs and policies, research methodology, and feasibility.

Projects cover a wide range of topics, including:

  • New employment program models for people with mental illnesses
  • Culturally and linguistically diverse families and attending structural barriers and promoting factors in transition planning
  • Employment experiences among adults with autism spectrum disorders who have intersectional marginalized identities and qualify for Social Security benefits
  • Long-term trajectories of employment following traumatic brain injury

Students come from universities all over the United States, from Washington, DC, to Berkeley.

Cohort 5 Research Projects

  • Longitudinal Trajectories of Employment After Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
  • Examining ABLE Accounts in Delaware
  • Effects of Remote Audio Coaching on Workplace Communication for College Students With Intellectual Disability
  • Wealth Among SSI and SSDI Recipients ARDRAW Small Grants Program
  • How People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired Experience Relationships in Text-Based Workspaces
  • Work Messages: Beneficiaries’ Understanding of Work and Social Security Disability Programs
  • A Mixed-Method Approach to Identify the Impact of COVID-19 on Employment of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Who Receive Social Security Benefits
  • Community Dis/affordances and Mobility-Disabled People’s Labor and Social Integration
  • Exploring Employment Experiences for Adults With ASD Who Qualify for Social Security Benefits With Intersectional Marginalized Identities
  • The Impact of COVID-19 on Vocational Rehabilitation Services of Social Security Beneficiaries: An Analysis of RSA-911 Data
  • From Exclusion to Inclusion and Gainful Employment – Understanding the Perspectives of DSPs as They Support People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
  • Strengths and Limitations of Emergent Employment Program Models for People With Mental Illnesses
  • Assessing the Relationship Between Education, Employment, and the Use of Public Supports in Individuals With Disabilities
  • Exploring Structural Barriers and Promoting Factors of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families in the Transition Planning through Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Discovering SSI Benefits, Social Services and Support for Children With Autism: Planning and Taking Action

Learn more about the ARDRAW Small Grant Program and sign up for the ARDRAW email list to be notified of future research opportunities.