National ADA Systematic Review

A research team at the University of Illinois at Chicago is conducting a three-stage review project analyzing the broad scope of research on the Americans with Disabilities Act. This project is part of the National ADA Knowledge Translation Center Project and responds to the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) call to “increase the use of available ADA-related research findings to inform behavior, practices, or policies that improve equal access in society for individuals with disabilities.” The UIC project will address the call by conducting systematic reviews of the current state of ADA related research and translating findings into plain language summaries for policymakers, technical reports, publications in peer-review journals, and presentations at national conferences.

The first stage of the project is a scoping review of the ADA literature that uses a very general research question (“What English-language studies have been conducted and/or published from 1990 and onwards that empirically study the ADA?”) and search terms (“ADA” and the appropriate truncation) in the initial review. Following the scoping review, the research team will generate more specific questions and terms with the assistance of an expert panel of key stakeholders involved with the research on the ADA to conduct a rapid evidence and systematic review. These reviews will collectively identify a future plan for research that spans core ADA research topics, methodological approaches to ADA-related research and potential outcomes to inform policy and practice, and positively impact on ADA stakeholders. 

Scoping Review

• ADA Systematic Review: Scoping Review Summary
• ADA Systematic Review: Technical Report of Scoping Review

Rapid Evidence Review

• ADA Systematic Review: Rapid Evidence Review Summary
• ADA Systematic Review: Technical Report of Rapid Evidence Review

Systematic Review

• The ADA and Disclosure Final Report
• The ADA and Healthcare Final Report

Articles

• Parker Harris, S., Gould, R. Ojok, P., Fujiura, G. Jones, R., & Olmstead. A (2014). Scoping Review of the Americans with Disabilities Act: what research exists, and where do we go from here. Disability Studies Quarterly, 34(3).

• Parker Harris, Gould, R., & Fujiura, G (2015) Enhancing rigor and practice of scoping reviews in social policy research: Considerations from a worked example on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation, 50(2), 323-334.

• Gould, R., Parker Harris, S., Caldwell, K. Fujiura, G., Jones, R. Ojok, P., Perez, K. (2015) Beyond the Law: A Review of Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions in ADA Employment Research. Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(3).

• Gould, R., Parker-Harris, S., & Fujiara, G. (2017). Systematic review and Knowledge Translation: A framework for synthesizing heterogeneous research evidence. Work, 57(4), 485-499.