Assistive Technology Research Matters Online Guide
ATIA and the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) have teamed up to develop the Assistive Technology Research Matters resources for AT developers. This is an interactive document which will provide guidance to individuals and companies on how to start or expand research activities. It will discuss supports that are available and how to begin with limited staff capacity.

Assistive Technology Research Matters Introduction - Learn about the resources, what's inside, and what research can do for you.

Literature Search

How to Work with a Professional Librarian: Get some help! Librarians are there for you; learn to use them and the public databases of research.
Before engaging in any research initiative, it is important to identify other studies within the field that are related to your project. This List of Research Journal Databases will help you determine gaps in the research base, shape your study design, and refine your research questions.

Types of Research Design

Usability: Learn effective methods of conducting usability studies; see how to integrate research into your design process.
Market: Read about key concepts in market research and how to engage current and potential customers.
Case Study: Learn about the holistic approach of case study research.
Single Subject: Learn about different single subject research designs. This low cost approach to research is often considered the best research design when measuring behavioral change in individuals.
Quasi-Experimental: This rigorous design is the next best thing to a true experiment. Learn about different quasi-experimental research designs, and how to conduct the research and analyze its findings.
Experimental: This “gold standard” design of research is the most rigorous and resource-intensive. Read about how experimental designs increase internal validity; learn how to collect data and how to interpret these designs.

Key Concepts

Validity and Reliability: Read about internal and external validity as well as the reliability of the measures and assessments which will give credibility to your study.

Ethics: There are many regulations and best practices to protect study participants as well as researchers; learn the issues.

Institutional Review Board (IRB): All projects with federal funding involving human participants need to be approved by an IRB even those without such funding may find it best practice. Learn more.

Funding Resources

Funding Resources Research takes resources. Check out these online aggregators of funding sources

Collaboration between Academic & Corporate Researchers

Case Studies Get a behind the scenes look at successful partnerships in technology research and development. Find tips and advice on making collaboration work.
List of RERCs: See a list of where disability and rehabilitation research is being conducted. Sign up for their newsletters or bookmark their pages to stay on top of recent developments.

Assistive Technology Research Matters Webinar Archives
In conjunction with the launch of the Assistive Technology Research Matters, NCTI and ATIA hosted a series of free webinars to explore these topics.

Held on Tue. April 26 – Usability Studies - ABSTRACT & ARCHIVE RECORDING
Join the National Center for Technology Innovation and ATIA to discuss best practices in usability research and learn effective methods of conducting these, in order to improve your product and engage your market.

NCTI Speaker: Tracy Gray, Director, NCTI, and the American Institutes for Research
Guest Speaker: Greg McGrew, Product Testing Lab Coordinator, Assistive Technology Partners at the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies RERC.

Held on Wed. June 1 – Market Research - ABSTRACT & ARCHIVE RECORDING
Join the National Center for Technology Innovation in a conversation about market research and how to engage current and potential customers.

NCTI Speaker: Tracy Gray, Director, NCTI, and the American Institutes for Research
Guest speaker: Jen Thalhuber, CEO of AbleNet, Inc.

Held on Tue. June 28 – Case Study - ABSTRACT & ARCHIVE RECORDING
Join the National Center for Technology Innovation to learn how to design and conduct a case study in a way that can inform your developers, engineers, and marketing staff about how your products are really being used.

NCTI presenter: Heidi Silver-Pacuilla, Deputy Director, NCTI, at the American Institutes for Research.

Guest speakers: Susan M. Bashinski, Associate Professor of Special Education, East Carolina University and Joni Nygard, MS, CCC-SLP, Director of Speech and Language Product Development, The Attainment Company, Inc. – winners of a 2010 NCTI Tech in the Works award.

Held on Mon. July 25 – Single Subject Research - ABSTRACT & ARCHIVE RECORDING
Join the National Center for Technology Innovation to learn how to effectively conduct, analyze, and present single subject research. The field needs much more evidence on what works for whom, for which tasks, and under what conditions. Learn how this low-cost research can show the effectiveness of your product.

NCTI presenters: Tracy Gray, Director, NCTI, at the American Institutes for Research.

Guests speakers: Scott Renner, Margaret Flores and Doris Hill, Auburn University – winners of a 2010 NCTI Bright Ideas award.

Held on Tue. Aug 23 – Quasi-Experimental and Experimental Research - ABSTRACT & ARCHIVE RECORDING
Join the National Center for Technology Innovation to understand what it takes to conduct these rigorous studies - Quasi-Experimental and Experimental Research. Explore design issues that impact the generalizability of the findings, learn about resource and knowledge requirements and how to analyze your data.

NCTI presenters: Tracy Gray, Director, NCTI, at the American Institutes for Research.

Guests speakers: Dr. Christina Whalen, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of TeachTown; Dr. Laura Lara-Brady, Research Scientist, TeachTown

Home | Back to Top

Accessibility Site Map Info Signup

ATIA Headquarters, 330 North Wabash Avenue, 20^th Floor Chicago, IL 60611-4267 USA