About IIDC

Dedicated to Our Mission and Committed to Our Values

At the IIDC, our vision is a world built for every ability.

To move toward that vision and ensure our efforts are aligned, the IIDC and it's Centers are guided by our mission, purpose, and values, and supported by an advisory group. In everything we do at the IIDC, we're with you!

Our mission is to support disability communities at every stage of life by:

  • navigating and removing systemic barrier.
  • connecting people, systems, and resources.
  • advancing research and applying insights as hands-on services, tools, and guidance that improve lives.

Our values permeate all of our activities:

  • Respect with Dignity: We honor the inherent worth of every person and treat all voices with care, value, and humanity.

  • Empowerment with Inclusion: We support people in leading their own lives while building communities where everyone feels seen, heard, and truly belongs.

  • Integrity with Empathy: We lead with honesty, act with compassion, and stay grounded in both ethics and understanding

  • Innovation with Collaboration: We bring bold ideas to life by working side-by-side, across disciplines, communities, and lived experiences.

  • Implementation with Partnership: We put plans into practice through close collaboration, ensuring that every step of execution is shaped by partnership and shared purpose.

Our Advisory Council validates our mission and values by including people with disabilities, parents of individuals with disabilities, and university representatives to ensure that service and dignity are central to our work.

Learn more about our Council

From the Executive Director

A good life is one spent among people who know you and are glad you are there. It looks different at every age: a child included in the classroom, a young person finding their footing after high school, an adult counted on at work, a family welcomed at the park, a neighbor missed when they are gone. That is our vision — a world built for every ability. It means more than being present in your community. It means belonging to it.

For more than 50 years, the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community has worked alongside Hoosiers with disabilities and their families toward that kind of life. The work is practical. We clear the obstacles that stand between people and a full life; we help people find the supports already around them; and we turn research and experience into training, tools, practices, and guidance that people and communities can use. As Indiana's University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), we do this through our seven Centers and the Institute's disability-focused library, in partnership with communities in every part of the state.

Belonging is not something any one of us can build alone, and it is not something a service can hand to a person. It takes root in ordinary places. In classrooms, workplaces, congregations, and parks, when the people already there come to know someone and count on them. That work belongs to all of us. So I invite you, whether you are a neighbor, an employer, an educator, a family member, a disability support professional, a policymaker, or a person with a disability, to walk with us in building communities where people are not only present but genuinely needed.

None of this can wait. The needs are immediate, and, for many, they last a lifetime. Our job is to take some of that weight, not to add to it. Wherever you are in this, there is a place for you here. At the IIDC, we're with you.

Sincerely,

Derek Nord, Ph.D.
Executive Director,
Indiana Institute on
Disability and Community

Our Work

The Institute serves as a liaison between academia and Indiana communities. Our membership in a national network of 67 independent but interlinked organizations—University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD)—allows us to advance research and solutions for the needs of individuals with disabilities and their families.

Our federal designation as a UCEDD mandates that we perform a set of four core functions that are embedded in our work across Centers. They include:

  • Interdisciplinary pre-service preparation and continuing education;
  • Research, including basic or applied research, evaluation, and public policy analysis;
  • Information dissemination; and
  • Community services, including training, technical assistance, and model demonstration.
Learn more about our work

68primary research and evaluation projects ranging in topics across the lifespan

108affiliated faculty, researchers, staff, support personnel, and graduate research assistants

1,290Student credit hours generated in 2023-24

Our Centers and Library

Center for Behavior and Systems Innovation

Working with people, organizations, and communities to understand behavior, strengthen practice, improve performance, and build systems that support lasting change.

 

Visit CBSI

 

Early Childhood Center

Conducting research and training to professionals to promote successful school readiness for children (birth to age five) and their families.

 

Visit ECC

Center for Collaborative Systems Change

Connecting policy, research, and practice in partnership with communities to build local capacity that fosters lasting, sustainable change.

 

Visit CCSC

 

Eppley Center for Parks and Public Lands

Partnering with recreation, park, and public land organizations in order to enhance access, choice, and quality of natural, cultural, and recreational experiences for all people.

 

Visit Eppley

 

Center on Community Living and Careers

Partnering with School and support organizations to improve secondary transition and employment outcomes to bring about positive change for individuals.

 

Visit CCLC

 

Indiana Resource Center for Autism

Conducting training, consultations, engages in research and disseminates information to build local community capacity to support children and adults on the autism spectrum.

 

Visit IRCA

 

Center on Education and Lifelong Learning

Working with schools and communities to welcome, include, educate, and support all learners.

 

Visit CELL

IIDC Library

The primary disability lending library for residents of the state of Indiana with more than 6,000 disability-related resources.

 

Visit the IIDC Library

A History of Disability

A History of the Institute and Centers

In 2020, the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community celebrates 50 years of work on disability through research, education, and service. Our work is about putting good ideas into everyday practice in schools and community settings to improve choices and quality of life for people with disabilities and their families.

Learn more

A History of Disability in Indiana

The Indiana Disability History Project preserves the memories and experiences of Hoosiers with disabilities and highlights historic developments in the disability rights movement. The contributions of movement leaders and pioneers, as well as people trying to live ordinary lives, are documented here. Community activists, family members, educators, professional service providers, public officials, and legislators are all represented as both Hoosiers with disabilities and their supporters.

Visit the Project