Mark: Hello, I'm Mark Odum, Director of NARIC. I would like to welcome you to our NARIC Spotlight podcast. This is our 20th episode and the second episode in our Conversations with the Director series. Today, I speak with Marta Garcia, NARIC's Bilingual Information and Media Specialist, and we will be reviewing some of the exciting things that happened at NIDILRR and NARIC. This includes new research projects funded by NIDILRR, research results published by NIDILRR grantees, and exciting news from NARIC, among other wonderful topics. We will also look at what's coming down the pike from NIDILRR, the NIDILRR grantee community, and NARIC in 2025.
Marta: Hi, Mark. So, my first question for you today is what exciting things happened or came out of NIDILRR in 2024?
Mark: Well, quite a few things. I want to brag a little bit. Probably the biggest thing that really came out of 2024 is that NARIC debuted a new logo. I want to say that the NARIC project went off to see the wizard. We had all this information. We've been working on it and have some wonderful stuff and have been repackaging it for years and years and years. And we needed to repackage it. So, we kind of went off to see the Wizard, came up and debuted a new logo, which we developed with the input from the stakeholders. We're all very excited. It features an open book with figures representing the diverse abilities walking across the open pages. Kind of represents the power of knowledge and supporting independence and participation. The process that we took because we involved the grantee community and talked to the researchers. We wanted to see what their feelings were towards NARIC and what to put NARIC and how we could represent that in a new logo. And involving the community was kind of neat.
In addition to that, we also decided that along with the new look to the logo, there was a new look to the website. And as part of our Off to See the Wizard and redoing everything down the Yellow Brick Road, social media road, we redid the entire website. So, the look and feel are much cleaner. I think it's much better organized from everything that I hear. They are having much more, how do I say this, getting much more out of the website than they ever have before, which is really nice. For the first time, we actually spell out NARIC as the National Rehabilitation Information Center. It's not just NARIC but involving everyone. I think one of the things that, we wanted to make sure is that we also worked closely with Our big Mount Rushmore at NIDILRR, which would be our project officer, Linda Vo. The NIDILRR associate director, who was our program officer, that's Pimjai Sudsawad, and then our contract officer, who is Maggie Hatton, and the senior advisor, Lavonia Villanueva. And those four really, we work with on a weekly basis, if not more, to help shape the thing and get it to a place where the community was real happy with it. So that's the biggest thing when we talk about 2024 is a big change for the image of NARIC. But NARIC has, and the information that we have, the people that we have, are all the same. There's no place like home, but certainly we've re-packaged it to make it a lot more interesting. So that's the most exciting thing for 2024.
Marta: Nice. So, who's the wizard and which one of us is Dorothy?
Mark: (laughs) I don't know. If you have to do that, then you gotta have a tin man in there. And certainly, the lion, all have a little aspect of each of us, don't we? For sure.
Marta: Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
Mark: For sure.
Marta: NIDILRR is not only a funding agency, but our funding agency and the funding agency for hundreds of research projects. Were there any new research projects that they funded in 2024 that caught your attention that really went, you know, that had you going, “Oh, I want to see what they do, what they're going to come up with!”.
Mark: There are a number of pieces. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I got an email from Havel Patel who is a Phase 1 SBIR and he's developing a Lotus ring. And this is a small device that you put on your finger, and it turns as an infrared remote so that you ... A person with very limited dexterity or a caretaker can use it to control the environment, whether it would be turning on and off a fan or a television or answering a phone with just a ring on the ring finger. It opens up the world to accessibility. So, he had sent … just happened to get an email from him yesterday that he won the Award at the CES 2025 for the accessibility award. So, there you go, NIDILRR funds go into winning the number one accessibility award at what I think is one of the most prestigious conferences on accessibility and on technology, not just disability technology, but technology all along.
That's big news of the week, if you will. In addition, when I think of some of the other projects that NIDILRR is moving forward. As many people know, I have had a spinal cord injury for many years, and I do participate in some of these longevity projects. Jim Krause at the University of South Carolina is working on a spinal cord injury piece and I've been following that real closely. He's been working with people with spinal cord injuries for more than 50 years and over 70 years old. Quite an interesting study. I want to see how his results are used and what he's going to do with that.
These are some of the newest pieces that are coming out that I think of. Now that's not to say one of the things that the NIDILRR has is they've been around for a long time and there's layers and layers and layers. I mean, you know, they certainly start out with the rehabilitation research and training centers and their rehab engineering centers, you know. All of these different projects that have been around for years and years. And some of the researchers have been getting funding for, you know, 30 and 40 years, which is great because their work continues on.
And you know, you get to see how the outcomes and the impact that it's had over the years. Not only that, but certainly we have the Mary Switzer Research Fellowships continuing on. I think that they've been giving those research fellowships out for I think more than 40 years now, and many people who start out as a first year Switzer fellow go on to spend many years helping NIDILRR out. And I guess, the biggest thing, you know, I will talk about some of many projects that NIDILRR has and how the layers of cake and continuing on.
Well, the newest thing, and I think the thing that has changed this year, more than anything else, is under the theme of diversity. The Langston University in Oklahoma just received, I think, three or four different field-initiated projects towards minority-serving institutions for work with diversity. And it's going to be really, really interesting to see that diversity in the new climate of change.
Marta: I think that that's very exciting. And have noticed a lot more coming out of the grantees in the last couple of years. But, know, obviously, as you know, I do the Spanish side of things. So I always look forward to seeing what comes out in Spanish you know, any research with the Latine community.
Mark: Yep. Mm-hmm. And that's growing, you know. That too is growing.
Well ... We're getting used more and more and obviously a deep dive into the website and what we wanted to do and changing it over from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10. We looked closely at the statistics. In 2024, we received 130,000 unique visitors to the website and the searchable databases. We have more than 10,000 social media followers now across multiple platforms. And that's both English and Spanish, which is obviously … we're growing more and more. I know that we're growing quite a bit on LinkedIn and I'm excited to see what's gonna happen with the butterfly because it looks like that's gonna get pushed. I don't know if push is the right word, but it seems like the disability community has been attracted to it. And I noticed some of the VIPs in disability contribute more and more to Butterfly. that's interesting to see how that takes off. It certainly...
You know, as we all know, one of the best ways to get the information out through social media and growing it through social media. So, we've done well in NARIC. This is the first year where we again, we restructured how we're looking at the pieces for NARIC and we condensed our acquisitions to the 700 bona fide documents that were funded through NIDILRR to put those in. We’ll make it without any problems. And I'm looking forward to it again. It's not only, I think, that we can say our numbers. But the quality of the research and the quality of what we're collecting is top notch. Again, the journal articles, the books and reports that are being produced by NIDILRR are all really exciting pieces. One of the reasons I think we all work in NARIC is because we do get to see the latest researching in what's going on.
Marta: Yes, I will admit, you know, that's one of my favorite parts of my job is seeing, you know, and I always, and whenever we've had been at, had a table somewhere for conference, I always say, you know, it's the latest, greatest research because it is, it is the latest, greatest. So, but that's just my very unbiased opinion.
Mark: Yep. Absolutely.
Marta: Would you mind telling our audience about some of the things that NARIC began or finished or did in 2024?
Mark: I think again, our big piece was redoing the website and the logo and condensing what we needed to staff-wise. And one of the things when we think about 2025, obviously we've really been … we're learning more and more with social media and getting more and more out of our social media. And we're growing that and our impact from that is going well. Obviously with podcasts like this, our 20th episode, I like the idea of podcasts and I want to push the idea, you're hearing this for the first time, Marta, but I like the idea of, you know, we talked about directors network and maybe using the podcast as a directors network and inviting move that the directors network as a podcast and have people come in and interview them and give them the power of our social media to push it. So, that's what I see us doing a lot more social media.
Marta: Nice, nice. You talk about the podcast. One of the things that I really liked about 2024 is not only the fact that we started first, but the fact also that we started this series of episodes where you and I sit and talk. You know, but I also like the fact that we've had some of the grantees come talk to us …
Mark: Yeah.
Marta: … you know, which is a new thing that we started in 2024, which I would love to …
Mark: And I think we need more of that. I think, you know, the back and forth. And I think people like being able to get their information out through that. It's another avenue, another way to get them involved.
Marta: Exactly, and one of the other things that I know we started was the office hours.
Mark: So. yes. Yeah. That's it.
Marta: … patrons, it's a consumer or a researcher or anybody else can schedule a time to talk with one of us. So, I think that's also good...
Mark: Thanks. Yeah, I think that's something that we need to push further. I think that there is a great opportunity. I know that people have mentioned that they want to get involved in that and that's, I think that that'll take off. that I can get a lot of mileage out of that.
Marta: I think so. think so. So, we talked about BlueSky for a little while, but I don't know if I told you, did I tell you who one of our first followers, or at least on the Spanish feed was? Anjali Forber-Pratt, of NIDILRR, who I was like, wow! I fan-personed over that one. She's doing good. She has shared pictures of her new …
Mark: No. Good, yes. Yeah, how's she doing?
Marta: … dog. I want to say guide dog, I was like, no, that's wrong.
Mark: Support the...
Marta: Support dog. So, but as far as I can tell, she's doing great.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah, she's one of the prominent disability figures, I think, pushing the BlueSky.
Marta: Yeah. Yeah. And I do see her post a lot and I do see a lot of the disability community more in English than in Spanish posting, but you know, …
Mark: Okay. Okay.
Marta: … that we've talked about been going on NIDILRR and was there anything exciting that happened in 2024 within the disability community?
Mark: Well, I don't know, changing our image, I think, is a pretty exciting thing. I'm real proud of it. I'm really happy with what we do. And each time I see that new logo; I like the idea. I think that that's real positive change.
So, it's a positive challenge. Yeah. Gotta do it. Yes. All right. Well, thank you. that this has been … I like the give and take, back and forth. We're doing well. Look forward to the next one and see what we can do about upping our numbers.
Marta: There you go. There you go. That's one of the things that I like about you, Mark, is your positive attitude.
Mark: Me, too.
Marta: There we go. I like that. All right. So I have one last question for you, Mark. I know you're all seeing. So, what do you see coming down the road for 2025?
Mark: Yes. I am looking forward again to social media and we're all doing better with our numbers.
We can be a catalyst to bring people together in NIDILRR. You know, one of the things that NARIC has always been a leader with the technology. You know, we're the first to really, you know, the oldest catalog, digital card catalog, fully digital collection at the first bulletin board, first emails.
You know, so we've always been, you know, at the beginning of a trend, if you will, or trend setting. And so, I see us setting more trends that way.
Marta: Awesome. I like that. Well, thank you, Mark. I think this has been a great conversation.
Mark: So, Marta, thank you very much. You're doing a great job. This is wonderful.
Marta: Thank you, Mark. I appreciate that. You, too.
Mark: This is Mark Odum. I would like to thank our listeners for tuning in to this episode today. I hope you learned a little bit about some of the exciting NIDILRR funded research, as well as some of the new activities at NARIC. Marta and I had a great time looking back at 2024 and we both look forward to seeing what comes in 2025. Happy New Year!