FALL 2023

For patients at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab with spinal cord injury, the first step towards envisioning their life after SCI comes from watching this unique video series.

“When I look back at that time, I’m very humble and proud,” says Nancy Paridy, President and Chief Administrative Officer of Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. “Always guided by our mission, we embraced innovation and creativity for the benefit of our patients.”

Stephanie Tomazin is a project coordinator working on projects investigating the use of smartphone technology to improve rehabilitation outcomes. She also helps enroll people with spinal cord injury in the National SCI Model Systems Database.

Growing up with family members with mental health challenges and her own experience with degenerative vision loss has led Jennifer Pearlstein to a career in rehabilitation psychology. 



Lisa Ottomanelli, PhD, clinical psychologist at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital & Clinics in Tampa, Florida, delivered the 2023 NIDILRR Invited Lecture for CROR's RRTC on Employment for Persons with Physical Disabilities on September 11.

Her presentation was on employment for veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and included findings from her own research to identify evidence-based approaches to increasing employment for veterans with SCI and TBI.

Certified Rehabilitation Counselor CEUs are available for reviewing this presentation recording and completing an evaluation form. Please contact Deborah Crown at [email protected] if interested.

Anjali Forber-Pratt, PhD, Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) and Angel Miles, PhD, Project Officer at NIDILRR, visited with NIDILRR grantees at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and toured parts of the hospital on September 11.



Photo from Left to Right:

Miriam Rafferty, PT, DPT, PhD, Director of Implementation Science; Bridgette Schram, PhD, Project Manager, CROR; Jaqueline Kish, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, CROR; Angel Miles, PhD, Project Manager, NIDILRR; Linda Ehrlich-Jones, PhD, RN, Associate Director, CROR; Anjali Forber-Pratt, PhD, Director, NIDILRR; Elliot Roth, MD, Attending Physician, Brain Innovation Center; Alex Wong, PhD, DPhil, OT, CRC, Research Scientist, CROR.

CROR to Lead International Study on Rehabilitation Length of Stay After Spinal Cord Injury and Associated Outcomes

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab has received a $4.2 million, 5-year grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research to lead an international study exploring how differences in inpatient rehabilitation length of stay (LOS) after spinal cord injury (SCI) affect the experiences and long-term outcomes of people with SCI.

The project includes collaborators in the United States, Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

The Rehabilitation Measures Database at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab contains 553 rehabilitation measures. Thirty-three are related to employment including the Work Rehabilitation Questionnaire, the Workplace Activity Limitations Scale and the Occupational Performance History Interview-II.



Six Measurement Tools (single page summaries) on RMD measures have been submitted to the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and will appear in that journal in the coming months.

Each October, we observe National Disability Employment Awareness Month to honor the contributions of people with disabilities to our country's workforce and to recommit to eliminating barriers to employment.

Please check out CROR's Employment Resources for People with Physical Disabilities, and additional resources related to recognizing National Disability Employment Awareness Month from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.

You can also register for "Advancing Access & Equity: Celebrating NDEAM" on October 26, 12 pm EDT. The webinar is hosted by Disability:IN DC Metro and will feature a conversation with US Department of Labor’s Deputy Assistant Secretary Jennifer Sheehy, Office of Disability Employment Policy and Lou Orslene, Director of Employer and Workplace Policy, Office of Disability Employment Policy.

Robin Jones has served as Director of the Great Lakes ADA Center since its inception in 1991. It is part of the ADA National Network and provides information, materials, technical assistance and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

On this episode of INside the OUTcomes, we talk to Robin about the Great Lakes ADA Center, how the Covid-19 pandemic influenced the kinds of calls fielded by the center and how AI is impacting the lives of people with disabilities.

The contents of this newsletter were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant 90RTEM0001). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS). The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL or DHSS.