Disability Research

Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation-Vocational Rehabilitation Research is a five year grant program funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). It builds on, and extends collaboration and capacity building efforts with Tribal Members, state agencies, and local communities. The purpose of the Research is:

1. To investigate access to, and acceptance rates for VR Services, types of services provided, and costs of rehabilitation services for American Indians with disabilities compared to non-minority individuals in Connecticut
2. To ensure the optimal collaboration of CT and RI Indian tribes, a non-minority research institution, and state agencies, to strengthen resources and research capacity
3. To recruit and retain American Indian researchers by on-the-job training and mentoring
4. To evaluate the impact of participation of American Indians in disability research to determine whether participation leads to improved VR outcomes.

Tribal members are involved in survey research with two purposes:

• to uncover the number of Tribal members with disabilities, from 4 different Tribes; and
• the extent of satisfaction they have with their current VR service and to make them aware of the MPYN-VR Service Program.

The Connecticut Tribes participating in the VR-Research Project are:

• Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation;
• Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation;
• Schaghticoke Tribal Nation.

The Rhode Island Tribe participating in the VR-Research Project is:

• Narragansett Indian Tribe.

It is significant that this project is the first VR-Tribal Service and Research program of its kind in New England. There is a lack of current research regarding health and disability-related needs of American Indians living in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The data gathered by this project will be vital for CT and RI State agencies, Tribal Health Services, and rehabilitation service providers for planning and implementing programs and services that will best meet the needs of American Indians in these States. Additionally, the information gathered by this project would be instrumental in future funding efforts for delivery of services to these four Tribes.

The Research methodology is Participatory Action Research, PAR. Its features include commitment of the Tribal Councils of each participating tribe; and involvement of Tribal representatives in the development of the survey instruments; training of Technicians; and interpretation of the data. Tribal members are carefully selected by their tribe to participate in this capacity building method of collecting Tribal Research. Extensive training is done to ready the chosen Tribal members called Research Technicians, in the PAR methodology. To date, 24 Tribal members have been trained in the PAR method.

Our other collaborators are the University of Connecticut - Storrs, Special Education Program, and the CT Bureau of Rehabilitation Services.

TribalVR.org