The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy

The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School leads research that helps shape policies, programs and practices which improve the lives of people with disabilities across the lifespan.

We partner with people with disabilities, community organizations, policymakers, and clinicians to produce research that addresses the critical issues that people with disabilities and their families face. This research incorporates qualitative and quantitative projects that are informed by the disability community and grounded in disability justice. Our research team includes established academic scholars, postdoctoral fellows, professional research staff, and student research assistants. We prioritize mentorship of the next generation of researchers.

What's Happening at the Lurie Institute

Announcing Laurie Bertram Roberts as our 2023 Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellow

The fellowship, funded by the Ford Foundation, is intended for activists, scholars, and community organizers with disabilities whose work draws national attention to systemic ableism in reproductive health policy.

Laurie Bertram Roberts (she/they) is a low income, black, queer, disabled grassroots reproductive justice activist, freelance writer, doula, aspiring midwife, and mother.

Learn more about Laurie

Call for Disabled Artists: Submit Your Ideas for the Community Living Equity Center Logo

Call for Disabled Artists: CLEC Logo Submit your idea for the logo of the new Community Living Equity Center!

CLEC, housed at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, is now accepting submissions. Please submit by February 6, 2023.

Review the submission guidelines and submit

Announcing the Establishment of the Community Living Equity Center

The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy is thrilled to announce the establishment of the Community Living Equity Center (CLEC). CLEC is the Lurie Institute's fourth federally funded research center.

Participants Needed for Research Study of New HCBS Outcome Measures

Review the study description and eligibility criteria

Current Featured Work

Disabled Parenting within Multigenerational Families webinar poster

Upcoming Webinar: Disabled Parenting within Multigenerational Families

Due to service gaps in home and community-based services and other factors, many adults with disabilities, including those who are parents, may continue to live with their families of origin. Center for Parents panelists discuss their experiences and discuss the policy implications.

Register for the January 31st webinar.

Plain-Language Brief: Excess Deaths of Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services Recipients During COVID-19

New plain-language brief from the Community Living Policy Center on excess deaths of Medicaid home and community-based services recipients during the pandemic.

Affordable, Accessible Housing and Community Living Policy webinar

Webinar: Affordable, Accessible Housing and Community Living Policy

On December 8, the Community Living Policy Center discussed an analysis of the American Housing Survey, a promising practice housing case study in California, and the policy implications around housing and community living.

Access the recording.

Infectious-Diseases-Related Emergency Department Visits among US Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Infectious-Diseases-Related Emergency Department Visits among US Adults with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

Lurie researchers find that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities have significantly higher risks than adults without IDD of visiting emergency departments, being hospitalized, and dying.

Our Areas of Study

Healthcare Equity

People with disabilities across the United States face significant disparities in finding and receiving healthcare. Our work uncovers these disparities through rigorous analysis and identifies promising policy solutions that governments, hospitals, insurance providers, clinics, and providers can use to ensure that people with disabilities receive equitable care.

Parents with Disabilities

Parents with disabilities have experiences and support needs that are often different from those of parents without disabilities. Our research identifies these experiences and needs to shape policies and programs that help parents with disabilities raise their children, receive culturally competent healthcare, and advocate for themselves when working with child welfare agencies or family courts.

Young people, including girl with prosthetic leg, sitting on a bench

Community Living Policy

The Lurie Institute conducts and supports research into policies that integrate people with disabilities into the wider community. People with disabilities have the right to live, work, and play in the community, and we are proud to help support those rights through our work.

“People with disabilities, like everybody else, should have the supports to live and to thrive in their communities.”

—Monika Mitra, Director of the Lurie Institute