In our efforts to be responsive to our stakeholders and develop KT tools that meet their needs, the Rocky Mountain ADA Center is continuing to conduct a comprehensive ADA impact assessment to determine the future direction for our core services. The project will consist of two stages. The first involves key informant qualitative interviews with 2-3 members of a target stakeholder group. The primary purpose of the key informant interviews is to discuss the impact of the ADA, identify challenges and successes with ADA implementation, identify dissemination strategies, and discuss information gaps.
Using data from these interviews, the research team identifies trends and develops targeted survey instruments to distribute to stakeholders across the region. Researchers then analyze survey results. These results are then fed back to ADA Center staff for use in designing ADA Center programming, including training, materials development and technical assistance activities.
During the first six months of the project year, we have finalized the data collection methodology for the qualitative interview protocol and the quantitative survey protocol. We have finalized our data collection tools for both stages of the research. We have finalized our invitation language for recruitment and are working with a public relations firm to develop a strategy for recruiting survey participants. Our team has submitted the project for IRB approval. We received preliminary approval and are awaiting our official approval letter from the IRB committee.