Center for Disability Studies

The Center for Disability Studies (CDS) is an interdisciplinary research, training, and community service institute dedicated to service and advocacy for individuals with disabilities. The CDS was established in 1999 by KSU Rehabilitation Counseling program and has received 38 federal and private foundation grants since 1999 with total budgets of more than 28 million dollars. Projects affiliated with the CDS have produced over 200 professional journal articles, 30 book chapters, 12 books, and 300 conference presentations. 

Faculty members, graduate students, and project staff for the CDS have been representative of a broad spectrum of Kent State programs including clinical rehabilitation counseling; counselor education and supervision; evaluation & measurement; recreation, park, & tourism management; special education; and school psychology. CDS projects have included research, personnel preparation, demonstration, and community service initiatives that have featured such topics as traumatic brain injury, deaf education, inclusion of children with disabilities in public schools, workplace discrimination of Americans with disabilities, early childhood special education, multiple sclerosis, job development and placement services, substance use disorders, psychiatric rehabilitation, educational and vocational assessment, interpreter training, transition from school to work, and postsecondary education and disability.

Current CDS projects include Project NEXT, a NIDILRR-funded national service project providing cognitive support technology and postsecondary support services to college students with traumatic brain injuries or autism spectrum disorder, along with the National EEOC ADA Research Project (NEARP), an ongoing multi-team collaborative research project to identify workplace discrimination issues facing Americans with disabilities.