Collaborations To Enhance Independent Living


The RTC/IL collaborates with numerous organizations to produce research and trainings that benefit people with disabilities. Our collaborators have included:

These Products are Results of Our Collaborations

  • Improving Access to Health Care for Kansans with Brain Injuries (PDF available upon request) and Improving Access to Health Care for Kansans with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (PDF available upon request) - produced through a project with the Disability Rights Center of Kansas
  • Caring for People with Disabilities - a course for Nursing students at the University of Kansas Medical Center
  • Healthcare Access for Persons with Disabilities - Online Course 

Success Story

Our collaboration with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was recognized as a CDC Grantee Success Story at the Association of University Centers on Disability (click on Kansas on the map). 

The story features the online course for healthcare providers (PDF available upon request) that Amanda Reichard, PhD, and Jamie Simpson, MS, co-developed.

Healthcare Access for Persons with Disabilities (KansasTRAIN) 

This course is available free to providers nationwide. One CME/CNE is offered for a $10. Description of Course (PDF available upon request).

This online course for healthcare professionals is designed to provide a better understanding of health, wellness and care issues for people with physical and sensory disabilities. Physicians, nurses, social workers, other healthcare professionals and medical office staff will learn skills to increase effective communication and tips for problem solving to enhance quality care for people with disabilities.

To enroll:

The RTC/IL developed the course in collaboration with KDHE's Disability and Health Program.

First page of Data Inventory DocumentData Inventory on the Employment and Health of Kansans with Disabilities (PDF available upon request)

This publication supports improved data sharing for people who run programs that serve people with disabilities in Kansas and people who are conducting disability-related research.

This collaboration was funded by two grants: One from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, awarded to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which contracts with the RTC/IL; and one from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the Kansas Health Policy Authority, with a contract to KU's Center for Research on Learning.