Rationale and Motivation for Developing the Curriculum
One of the initial tasks of the MIR Team members was to develop and dispense a survey to UCEDD directors that asked them a series of questions about their UCEDDs’:
- overall understanding of and usage of PAR practices and strategies,
- experiences with barriers and limitations when implementing PAR, and
- needs, to better understand and implement PAR.
As a result of the survey, one of the major barriers identified to implementing PAR was the lack of general research and PAR knowledge and understanding among both UCEDD staff and community members with disabilities and their family members.
The MIR Team members decided that a necessary component of the PAR Toolkit would be curriculum to teach research and PAR concepts to UCEDD staff and community members. In order to save time and effort, MIR Team members decided not recreate a new curriculum, but identify and then modify an existing curriculum. The modifications would include infusing pertinent disability information throughout the curriculum and translating the curriculum into “simplified language”. These modifications would meet the needs of both UCEDD staff and community members with disabilities and their family members.Dianne Colley, out of UAMS College of Public Health, Little Rock, Arkansas, gave permission for the MIR Team members to use her "Community Research Workshop" curriculum and Power Point as a template for their curriculum. The final result is the "PAR in UCEDDs" curriculum and Power Point.
