Disability Research

Learning more about disabilities and functional impairments

Many people experience some form of obstacle to participating in working life, social contexts or leisure activities. Some have this for a limited period, others for their entire lives. In disability research at Linköping University, we study such diverse fields as hearing impairments, depression, different development conditions and pain.

The aim of disability research at Linköping University is to increase knowledge of functional impairments and disabilities in society. Among other things, the LiU researchers study the conditions and perspectives of people with disabilities, as well as their social conditions in the community. But the subject also encompasses medical and technical problems.

Focus is on the area of cognition and communication, i.e., on the processes which take place in the brain when we receive, process and mediate information. In this area, LiU researchers have a broad knowledge, and a great deal of the research is about hearing and deafness but also about cognitive conditions for communication among other groups, such as people with learning disabilities and autism.

Research

Kognitiv hörselvetenskap hjärna hörsel minne

Linnaeus Centre Head

Most people take for granted being able to hear and talk with others, but it is not obvious to everyone. Our focus is to create new knowledge that helps people with hearing loss to communicate in everyday life.

Swedish institute for disability research

Lots of people take for granted being active and able to participate in everyday life, but it is not obvious to everyone. Our focus is to increase the knowledge about disability and contribute to improve the situation of persons with disabilities.

Three young people, a boy and two girls seen from the left, sit next to each other. The image is yellow tinted. The guy looks at an iPad while the girls look at their mobiles.

Young and Participating - YoPa

The research includes children and young people with activity limitations in their everyday lives. This can be due to intellectual disabilities, ADHD, mobility impairments, or no specific diagnosis but with need of special support in school.

News

Three out of four rid of insomnia after online CBT

Insomnia is not only a symptom of another illness, but often a problem in itself that is important to treat. This is the opinion of researchers at LiU and KI, who have shown that CBT online has beneficial effects on serious sleeping problems.

The Entrepreneurial Researcher

You can compare research to video games. At least if you ask Håkan Hua, an ambitious young researcher whose goal is to make life better for people with hearing loss.

Therapy online as good as face to face

Internet-delivered therapy is gaining ground – it has been proven helpful against arachnophobia, tinnitus and depression. At the forefront of this research field is Gerhard Andersson.

Barn som läser. Forskning om Specialpedagogik.

Special needs education

The research at LiU focuses among other things on didactics and special needs education, inclusion and special needs groups, neuropsychological disabilities, groups and group processes.

Psychology

Psychology is an academic discipline that revolves around human behaviour and mental processes.

Cognitive Science

Cognitive science studies these processes from several different scientific perspectives. The researchers study people's thoughts, develop machines that carry out cognitive tasks and study cognition in other animal species.

Disability Research

Learning more about disabilities and functional impairments