Life Span Institute Blog

KU Life Span Institute investigator Tera Fazzino’s research on “hyperpalatable” foods caught the attention of YouTuber Chris MacAskill, who on March 25 featured her on his Plant Chompers channel.

Following National Barrier Awareness Day on May 7, we’re calling attention to several ways people with disabilities encounter obstacles in their daily lives — and why accessibility for everyone is important.

The Cofrin Logan Center's bar lab plays host to SAPEC 'Barstander' training session to help students identify warning signs of escalating behavior, build their confidence as bystanders and to allow them to fail safely at trying out different intervention strategies.

The research project you’re working on has a data sharing and archiving requirement with the NIMH Data Archive: what does that mean?

More than 300 universities and colleges offer programs for students with intellectual disabilities. KU is home to Transition to Postsecondary Education, the state's only inclusive postsecondary education program for people with intellectual disabilities.

Jomella Watson-Thompson is leading one of only five federally-funded national centers of excellence on youth violence prevention with the Youth Violence Prevention Research Center-Kansas City (YVPC-KC).

The KU Life Span Institute hosted the Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities April 10-13, 2023. One of the premier conferences for behavioral scientists conducting research on intellectual and developmental disabilities, the conference brings together scientists from around the world to discuss research and collaborate.

People frequently assume guardianship is the best or only option for adults with disabilities who need supports with decision making.  However, the highly restrictive nature of legal guardianship arrangements is often not well understood, and people are often unaware of how difficult and expensive guardianship arrangements can be to change.

Colleagues and administrators gathered on Feb. 16 to honor Life Span Institute Director John Colombo for his service in interim roles during the past five years at KU.

Research by KU scientists and others has long reinforced that career development opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities provide not only financial benefits, but improved physical and mental health, and better quality of life. Researchers also have established that with appropriate supports, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities can participate in competitive integrated employment.