Founder of KU disabilities research and training center gets lifetime award

Editor's note: The sixth edition of 'Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities' is available by contacting (785) 864-4095, (785) 864-0706 (TTY) or rtcil@ku.edu.

LAWRENCE -- The National Association of Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers honored Jim Budde, director emeritus of the Research and Training Center on Independent Living, with its Lifetime Service Award.

The association recognized Budde for his "continuous contribution to research and training in independent living and to advancing the empowerment of people with disabilities."

Budde founded KU's RTC/IL in 1980 and has spent his 40-year career as a researcher and national leader on behalf of people with disabilities.

Under Budde's leadership, the center has influenced public policy, such as national standards for independent living centers, and produced numerous publications, including the million-seller "Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities," a standard reference for journalists.

Budde also helped guide the successful implementation of the Developmental Disabilities Act of 1996 in Kansas, which required the development of a network of local service centers.

The U.S. Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research funds the nationwide system of Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers. The centers conduct research on rehabilitation service delivery, disabling conditions, and the social and economic independence of individuals with disabilities.

The KU Research and Training Center on Independent Living is one of 13 centers and more than 100 programs of KU's Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies that serve both rural and urban Kansans through research-based solutions to the problems of human and community development, disabilities and aging.