Life Span Institute Connections

Thursday, July 9, 2026

Director's letter: OMB proposed rule | AAIDD recognition | KFSC Chatbot
PIPA project | Postdoc candidate visits | Accessibility tips

As we've announced before, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on Regulations for Federal Financial Assistance. I apologize for the length of this message, but there is only a brief period to submit personal remarks on this matter, and I wanted to give everyone as much information as possible.

I am writing to our LSI community, as federal research grants and contracts have long been the lifeblood of our center, and to encourage you to provide your commentary on the impact of these changes.  

THE PROPOSAL

This proposal represents significant changes that would go into effect by October 2026 to give OMB greater authority over federal agencies that establish research funding priorities and the awarding of grants.  According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), if this proposed rule is enacted, it would profoundly undermine the scientific, merit-based, peer-review system that the U.S. research ecosystem has been based on for nearly a century.

The AAAS has provided a summary of the points of the proposed rule changes but here are some of the highlights of the proposal. I've included the relevant section numbers with each one:

There is a public comment period that will end on or before Monday, July 13, 2026. This is the link for comments.

Information provided at a recent AAAS webinar indicated that the number of public comments matters and the more personal and specific the comments, the better.  Individuals can submit the comments anonymously.  Please note that any comments must come from your personal email address.  Each university is limited to a single institutional comment. If you comment, do not use any information that includes your affiliation with KU.  

GUIDANCE ON WRITING YOUR COMMENT

When you write your comment, focus primarily on the key issues that affect you directly. Since there are numerous proposed changes you don’t necessarily have to address every single issue. AAAS encourages you to focus on issues that impact the entire research enterprise and expand upon how they impact your field:

When you comment, be aware that commenting as part of the rulemaking process follows a more technical approach, and comments should be structured in that manner. If you need help getting started, here is a four-paragraph series of prompts (Sharepoint link). Additional guidelines are:

FOLLOW UP WITH YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

In addition to submitting public comments to OMB, you can share your concerns with your members of Congress by emailing them or calling their office. You can find your representative and senator by visiting the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. As with submitting comments on the proposal, use your personal email account to send correspondence.

If you do this, don’t send your entire public comment but instead summarize your concerns and the key issues raised in your submission to OMB. Remember, in this communication, you’re writing as a constituent to your elected representative(s). For example:

Again, comments on the OMB Proposed rules are due 7/13/26.

Thanks for your efforts,

-- John

John Colombo
Professor of Psychology
Director, Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies
University of Kansas

For its 150th anniversary, a national association representing thousands of research and education professionals in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities has recognized nine researchers affiliated with the University of Kansas Life Span Institute and the KU Department of Special Education.

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) presented their annual awards, which recognize significant contributions in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities, and sesquicentennial awards in research, recognizing service, policy, practice, and advocacy, at the association’s annual meeting held June 22-26 in Chicago.

Honorees affiliated with the Life Span Institute were Lauren Bruno and Karrie Shogren (pictured above), Steve Warren, Evan Dean, Shea Tanis, Mike Wehmeyer, Ann Turnbull, Susan Palmer and Mayumi Hagiwara.

“The fact that AAIDD has seen fit to honor these investigators at this year’s annual conference serves to reinforce the elite global standing of the collaborative and interdisciplinary community we have in the area of intellectual and developmental disability,” said John Colombo, director of the Life Span Institute.  “It is especially gratifying to note that, in honoring both our past investigators, and recognizing current researchers, AAIDD points to both our extraordinary history and our stellar present.”

👉Read more about the awardees in Life Span Institute news.

Kansans with questions about autism increasingly turn to AI chat programs — like ChatGPT — for health information, but responses from large language models aren’t always accurate, up-to-date, or accessible to the user’s location.

To meet needs in the state, University of Kansas researchers with the KU Life Span Institute and the KU Medical Center developed the Kansas Autism and Disability Resource Navigator, a free custom chatbot to address questions about autism. The resource navigator uses curated autism support resources available in Kansas and verified by experts. The chatbot, which became available in January of this year, was funded through grants to the Kansas Family Support Center (KFSC) and Juniper Gardens Children’s Project allocated by the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services and the Kansas Department of Children and Families.

Jay Buzhardt, research professor at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project and leader of the autism resource navigator project, said that limiting the knowledge base of the resource navigator to vetted websites specific to Kansas ensures more accurate information than other chatbots. Its structure also allows users to remain anonymous to protect the privacy of those asking potentially sensitive or personal questions. To date, the resource navigator has offered answers to more than 1000 questions from more than 500 users.

👉Read more about the chatbot project and KFSC in Life Span Institute news.

Over the month of June, multiple media outlets including Texas Public Radio, Yellowstone Public Radio, Seattle Times, MSN, and CNN – which used the headline "Betcha can't eat just one" – shared recent research published by Tera Fazzino. Fazzino also spoke at an event developed by the publisher held in Washington, DC.

The Hays Post published news about KU’s statewide literacy research project and remarks from Suzanne Myers, co-director of the KU Center for Research on Learning.

Among many activities KUCD participated in during June, staff and researchers led the annual Capacity Building Institute in partnership with Kansas Transition Teams and Councils, Families Together, Inc., Kansas State Department of Education, Kansas Rehabilitation Services, TASN, and NTACT:C.

Jay Buzhardt, research professor at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, and Stephanie Coleman, Kansas LEND Family Faculty Discipline Supervisor, spoke to the Kansas Legislature’s Joint Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care about the impact of the Kansas Family Services Center June 30.

School administrators and educators in Lansing, Kan., have welcomed KU autism researchers to their district for three years to collaborate on PIPA, or Peer Interventions for Preschoolers with Autism. PIPA is led by Kathy Bourque, Janet Weaver, Alexa Padak, and Stacy Johner at Juniper Gardens with colleagues at UNC including Jessica Steinbrenner and former Juniper Gardens director Brian Boyd. Weaver and Padak summarized activities and results on May 8 and the district provided a summary highlighting the results of the research partnership to date. The research will continue in Lansing for a fourth year in 2026-27.

The Laboratory of Affective Sensory Research (LASR), will welcome visiting candidates for a postdoctoral research position in July. Mingrun Shi (left image), King’s College London, will present a hybrid-based talk at 9 a.m. Monday, July 13, in 235 Youngberg Hall and via Zoom (code 1234). His talk is titled, "Excitation/Inhibition Balance and Sensorimotor Function in Autism: A Multi-Modal Neuroimaging Investigation."

Michael Tollefsrud (right image), Kansas State University, will present for a hybrid based talk at 9 a.m. Monday, July 27, in 235 Youngberg Hall and via Zoom (code 1234). His talk is titled, "Shaping Experience: Affect, Attention, and Perception."

KU announced updates to the university's travel policies that unite policy across KU campuses as part of the One KU effort. Those who plan to travel for KU-related business or book travel for someone else should read and familiarize themselves with the policies. They cover everything from travel insurance to adding personal travel to technology rules for international travel.

Note that travel authorization must be pre-approved at least 14 days prior to domestic travel and 30 days prior to international travel. LSI grant coordinators are well-versed in submitting authorization forms, so let your grant coordinator know anytime you have upcoming travel. 

If you’d like to learn some new tricks to make courses, online content, presentations and documents more accessible, KU offers a module-based course on Canvas. It includes course design best practices, techniques for making documents accessible, accessibility tools and scanners, Microsoft Office document accessibility, and tips on making a long document such as a thesis or dissertation accessible.

The federal government delayed an accessibility compliance deadline for universities to April 2027, providing time to explore standards and update materials.

In an effort to familiarize the KU community with the underused KU Employee Assistance Program, which provides a wide variety of support to KU staff and their families, the KU Employee Wellness added scenarios to their website that include first-person anecdotes about using the service.  They cover what it’s like to make your first call to the EAP, an overview of all benefits such as eight free sessions with a therapist, and the posts explore how the EAP is for all members of a KU employee’s household.

Parking permits: Faculty and staff parking permits for the 2026-27 academic year are now available for purchase via payroll deduction in the KU Parking Portal. Current annual passes expire July 31.

Employee self-evaluations: Employee self-evaluationns in the MyTalent system were due June 30. Supervisors have until Aug. 28 to submit their evaluations of direct reports. Instructions are on the HR website. 

Strategic Framework: KU administrators are seeking feedback on the draft strategic framework that will guide all campuses, schools and units in advancing KU’s mission. The administration suggests learning more by downloading the One KU Strategic Framework, or by viewing Corinne Bannon’s April 23 virtual town hall video presentation. After reviewing the information, staff are also asked to complete a short online survey.

Management of KU Research: In an effort to reduce duplication and streamline processes and decisions, the university unified the boards of the KU Center for Research (KUCR) and the KU Medical Center Research Institute (KUMC RI) so that they have the same leadership.

Connections is produced by strategic communications staff at the Life Span Institute for affiliated researchers, staff and students. 

Writing and editing by Jen Humphrey and Christina Knott.
Image credits: Francis Mackinnon-Love, KU Marketing; Mingrun Shi and Michael Tollefsrud; and Adobe stock.

Please submit news, kudos, achievements and other items for consideration here.

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