Multifaceted Interventions for Supporting Community Participation Among Adults with Disabilities: A Systematic Review

About the Webcast

This webcast is co-sponsored by two NIDILRR-funded grants: the Center on KTDRR and the University of Kansas’ Research and Training Center on Independent Living project for Promoting Interventions for Community Living (RTC/PICL). The webcast presents the process and results of a Campbell Collaboration systematic review, Multifaceted Interventions for Improved Community Participation Among Adults with Disabilities. The systematic review is a product of the RTC/PICL [NIDILRR grant #90RT5043] and was supported with technical assistance (TA) from the Center on KTDRR [NIDILRR grant #90DP0077].

Previous research conducted in community settings among people with disabilities suggests multiple points of intervention, or facets, that could be addressed to achieve intended outcomes. This systematic review contributed to RTC/PICL’s research to identify multifaceted interventions that are effective in facilitating increased community participation for adults with disabilities. The review team, guided by a person-environment fit model, examined the effects of interventions that address two or more participant characteristics (e.g., social skills) and/or environmental characteristics (e.g., access to transportation) on community participation outcomes (e.g., employment) for adults with disabilities. Results inform researchers and policymakers about current gaps in the research knowledge base. Findings also may help health and social work practitioners to understand and apply multifaceted interventions that support adults with disabilities.

Funding for the review: Two NIDILRR-funded grants supported this review. The University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL) collaborates with consumers on productive research to further their independent living. The RTC/IL provided funding for Judith Gross and Amalia Monroe-Gulick, who developed and documented the search strategy, and contributed to the article reviews, data management, and analysis as well as consulted with a Scientist-Consumer Advisory Panel concerning defining characteristics of the review. The Center on KTDRR provides TA to NIDILRR grantees working on systematic reviews or research syntheses of their research. KTDRR supported the additional effort required to publish the review through the Campbell Collaboration‘s Disability Coordinating Group, including the work of team members Debbie Davidson-Gibbs, an AIR researcher who reviewed primary research articles, and consultant Chad Nye, data analysis.

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  1. This webcast originally aired on October 29, 2018. The archive is available on YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/NoQpLvGlpyI.

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About the Presenters

Photo of Judith Gross

Judith Gross, PhD, is the director of the Center on Community Living and Careers at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.  Previously she was Assistant Research Professor at the University of Kansas, working with the Research and Training Center on Independent Living. In that capacity, she conducted the present systematic review of multifaceted interventions leading to community participation outcomes for a NIDILRR grant on Promoting Interventions for Community Living. She has over 20 years of experience as a special education teacher, direct service provider, advocate, researcher, and technical assistance provider.




Photo of Amalia Monroe-Gulick

Amalia Monroe-Gulick, MLS, is an Associate Librarian with the KU Libraries. As a member of the RTC/IL team, she assisted with design and implementation of multiple library searches for systematic and scoping reviews, including the present systematic review on multifaceted interventions promoting community participation among people with disabilities. Ms. Monroe-Gulick received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Illinois State University, and her master’s in library science from Indiana University.



Photo of Chad Nye

Chad Nye, PhD, is a consultant for KTDRR and conducted the data analysis for the systematic review team. He is a former Executive Director of the Center for Autism & Related Disabilities and Professor at University of Central Florida, College of Health and Public Affairs. Dr. Nye has over 20 years of experience in the area of meta-analysis and systematic review of intervention evidence in the area of disability. He has more than 10 publications of meta-analyses of speech and language interventions with adults and children. He was a Campbell Collaboration/Robert Wood Johnson Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, working in the area of systematic review of education and healthcare issues for children (2001-2002). In 1995, he fulfilled a Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship in Jordan. He was recognized in 2010 as a Fellow of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Dr. Nye has served as a collaborator on international research and education projects in Great Britain, Belgium, Greece, and Germany.


Photo of Joann Starks

Joann Starks, MEd, serves as the moderator for this webcast and has worked with the Center on KTDRR since it began in 2012. As KTDRR’s Training Lead, she coordinates training courses, workshops, webcasts, and conferences on topics such as assessing research evidence and conducting high-quality systematic reviews and syntheses, knowledge translation, and disability and rehabilitation research. Ms. Starks also works with the NIDILRR-funded Center on KT for Employment Research (KTER), established in 2010. She worked at Austin, Texas-based SEDL from 1995-2015, before SEDL merged with American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2015. Ms. Starks is a member of the Executive Committee of NARRTC (an association of NIDILRR grantees and stakeholders), and serves as co-chair of the Campbell Collaboration’s Disability Coordinating Group.