Welcome to the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities Website

The Institute was founded in 2001 by a generous gift to the University of Colorado System from William and Claudia Coleman. Our mission is to catalyze and integrate advances in science, engineering, and technology to promote the quality of life and independent living of people with cognitive disabilities. The Institute is actively engaged in supporting research, development, dissemination, and education in cognitive disabilities on the four campuses of The University of Colorado System in Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver. We are committed to providing scientific, technological, and public policy leadership to strengthen the voice of persons with cognitive disabilities and their families in our society.

The University of Colorado is a formidable research enterprise. We currently rank among the top nine public and private universities in the United States in federal research expenditures. By investing the Institute's research resources in project support and matching funds for CU faculty, we seek to help them leverage additional cognitive disability research grants from external funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). In October 2004, at the annual Coleman Conference on Cognitive Technologies, NIDRR director Steven Tingus announced that CU had received a $4.25 million grant from NIDRR to establish the first Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Cognitive Technologies. The Coleman Institute is providing an additional $1.25 million of support for this ground-breaking center.

When we refer to "cognitive disabilities" on this website we are primarily referring to mental retardation and developmental disabilities, acquired brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, and severe and persistent mental illness. These conditions affect over 20 million American citizens -- seven percent of the U.S. population. Prevalence rates for cognitive disability will grow rapidly as our nation ages and as advances in the medical and rehabilitative sciences extend the longevity of persons with disabilities.

Cognitive disability stems from a substantial limitation in one's capacity to think, including conceptualizing, planning and sequencing thoughts and actions, remembering, and interpreting the meaning of social and emotional cues, and of numbers and symbols. Common consequences of cognitive disability include stigma and discrimination, social isolation, difficulty communicating, poverty, and institutionalization. Moreover, as societies become more technology reliant, a rapidly growing "digital divide" is developing between persons who are competent to use emerging technologies and those with cognitive limitations who are not competent to do so without adaptive personalized modifications and training.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the RERC, the Coleman Institute is presently supporting a number of exciting research projects led by investigators on CU's four campuses. Several of these projects involve the application of new computing technologies to cognitive disability. Under development are animated learning tools, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)-based voice training programs, smart housing and transportation systems, and recreation technology specifically designed for health promotion for people with cognitive disabilities. Other initiatives focus on neuroscience research. Learn more about these projects on this website, and about scores of additional research projects in cognitive disabilities in cognitive disabilities being carried out on CU's four main campuses.

The Coleman Institute provides direct funding for projects such as those described above, but we also assist CU faculty by providing challenge grant funding for Coleman Graduate Research Assistantships in federal research grant applications. We have numerous such commitments to CU faculty at the present time.

Every year we support several major conferences on cognitive disability research. For the last four years, our own annual “Coleman Conference” has been a national event, bringing together faculty researchers from across the University of Colorado System, disability leaders, federal agency heads, and prominent scientists and engineers. This conference is explicitly designed to explore research frontiers and partnerships in cognitive disability and technology. This year’s event, “Enhancing the Quality of Life for People with Disabilities through Technology,” was held at the Hilton Denver Tech Center on October 4th and 5th. Speakers included Vinton Cerf, senior vice president of Technology Strategy, MCI, and co-designer of the protocols and architecture of the internet; Mary Wooley, president and CEO, Research! America; Eric Dishman, director, Intel Proactive Health Research and National Chair, Center for Aging Services Technology; and many other outstanding scientists, researchers, and advocates. See this link for the complete conference agenda and presentations.

This website not only provides information about the research and related activities we support at CU. We also provide links to a nationwide array of cognitive disability and technology resources in universities, state agencies, parent and professional associations, private corporations, and the federal government. We invite you to visit our site, to use it to link to other resources in cognitive disability and technology, and to return frequently.


David Braddock, Ph.D., Executive Director, Coleman Institute
Associate Vice President, University of Colorado System


David Braddock