The Social Security Administration’s Analyzing Relationships between Disability, Rehabilitation and Work (ARDRAW) Small Grant Program has recently funded its second cohort of student researchers. ARDRAW is a one-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.
A total of 13 projects have been funded with research to be completed by June 2019. Students attend universities across the United States, from the University of California at Berkley to the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Projects focus primarily on issues and barriers that impede the return to work for those receiving SSA’s disability benefits, from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or both. Topics include:
- Work Accommodations and Opportunities for Adults Who Use Assistive Technologies
- Factors Promoting and Inhibiting Work in the Context of Chronic Neurological Disease: Uncovering Pathways to Intervention
- Relationship and Fit between Workers’ Needs as Reflected in SSI/SSDI Claims and EEOC Data and Court Decisions re: Reasonable Accommodations
- HUD rental assistance programs as auxiliary tools for helping SSI recipient families achieve positive outcomes
- Exploring Agriculture-Based Job-Training & Employment for SSI recipients with Autism Spectrum Disorder
- How has Medicaid expansion affected healthcare coverage and labor market activity among those with disabilities?
- Understanding transportation challenges for people with disabilities returning to work
- How SSI and SSDI Beneficiaries Work Around and Within Current Labor Incentive Programs
For a complete list of projects, please see the ARDRAW website.