Applied Disability Research

The area of “applied research” develops concrete measures on the findings of basic research.

NOTE
Information to Book and Film can be found in range "Practice", the Press Reports on "Media".

AWF

Team Applied Disability Research:
Lena Pescia, Prof. Dr. Nils Jent
Ursula Würmli, Secretary of the CDI

The goal of the Department is to create practical integration concepts and instruments, such as the integration of employees with disability into a team structure, so as to derive benefit for all of those involved.

How are jobs and infrastructures adapted to the needs of particular disabilities?
How can team and management structures be shaped to enable the best possible participation of employees with disability?
How can system, culture, structure and strategy of a company be optimised in such a way that, from the interplay of persons with and without disability, an added value emerges for all?

It is thus important to substantiate, in a concrete manner, the expenditure and the yield of each of the various measures.

Central to this area of research is both the change in values and the aspect of economic fairness. Only if an additional value is created for all do persons with disability, persons without disability, as well as society and the company as a whole benefit from the integration efforts generated.

In this process, the Team of Applied Research benefits from the basic research at the CDI.
Prof. Dr. Nils Jent, head of the department, has known both worlds since the age of 18, as well as the demands that each world places on the members of the other. Since his “change of sides”, he has been physically disabled and speech-impaired as well as blind. The experiences he has gathered from both worlds therefore flow into the “Applied Research” at the CDI with a particular focus on practice. Prior to her Master’s degree in Psychology, Regula Dietsche trained as an occupational therapist HF [Higher Vocational College] and, in this occupational field, gathered important experience and insights into working with people with disability. Moreover, as she grew up with a severely disabled child, she also knows both worlds, offering a complementary perspective to Prof. Dr. Nils Jent.