Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities Program (RAPD) Robert J. Jaeger, Ph.D. Program Director November 2006

1. Research to AidPersons with DisabilitiesProgram(RAPD)Robert J. Jaeger, Ph.D.Program DirectorNovember 2006

2. National Goals and RAPD • Americans with Disabilities Act • New Freedom Initiative • No Child Left Behind Act • Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act • NSF Strategic Plan

3. What types of disabilities are there? How many Americans have disabilites? Orthopedic impairments 8,608,000 Learning disability and mental retardation 1,575,000 Visual impairments 1,294,000 Hearing impairments 1,175,000 Paralysis 1,070,000 Deformities 900,000 Absence or loss of limb/other body part 788,000 Speech impairments 545,000 Other and ill-defined impairments 371,000 Source: M.P. LaPlante and D. Carlson (1996). Disability in the United States: Prevalence and Causes, 1992. Disability Statistics Report No. 6. Washington, D.C.: National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

4. Models of Disability:RAPD has Funded Research in Both • Medical Model: “Fix the Person” • Artificial Leg • “Cure” for Spinal Cord Injury • Prosthetic Retina • Social Model: “Fix the Environment” • Wayfinding for Visual Impairment • Human-Computer Interaction • In practice, often a combination of the two

5. Current RAPD Program Description: NSF PD 07-5342 • Development of technologies for new and improved devices or software for persons with disabilities • Characterization, restoration, and/or substitution of human function • Emphasis is placed on significant advancement of fundamental engineering knowledge and not on incremental improvements

6. Examples of Possible RAPD Topics • Novel acoustic wave processing and noise reduction techniques for applications such as hearing aids • Development of biocompatible detection technologies that could serve as massively parallel interfaces for communicating with neural tissue such as used in artificial retina • Novel technologies for home healthcare, such as new approaches for transdermal drug delivery and home healthcare medication management and telemonitoring • And others as well – the above are just examples

7. RAPD Undergraduate Design Projects • The primary goal of this thrust is to provide a meaningful design experience for the engineering student who will work with a specific disabled individual to design a prototype "custom-designed" device or software. • Each PI is expected to implement a high percentage of projects each year. It is also expected that the projects will contain appropriate levels of quantitative engineering analysis. • The proposal must include a short description of ten possible design projects. These projects should be suitable for an undergraduate student, or a small team of students, to complete in about one year.

8. This is the crew of the B’Quest. They completed the 2,500 mile Transpac yacht race in July 2005. Each member of the crew, with the exception of the skipper, was a person with a disability. NSF-funded engineering students at San Diego State University created specially designed equipment for the yacht to allow each crew member to participate in the race. A very successful undergraduate design project. (NSF Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities Program, Award #0314095)

9. RAPD’s Interagency Partnersin Disability Research • Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (RR&D) • National Institutes of Health, National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) • Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)

10. Thank You! Questions? rjaeger@nsf.gov