Dr. David Braddock
Dr. Braddock received his doctorate in Special Education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969. While there, he worked part time as a recreation specialist at the Austin State School, teaching residents how to play basketball and participate in other physical activities. Here he, “saw first-hand how important it was to provide quality of care for people with ID, and how difficult it was to do in a large institution”. It was the beginning of his life-long dedication to advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and it inspired the subject of his dissertation comparing the financial impact of institutional vs. community care for people with IDD (1969-1973).
That dissertation was the foundation for the first State of the States in Developmental Disabilities Project. From 1979 to 2001, Dr. Braddock, Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health, led the project in Chicago as principal investigator. He was supported there by an impressive staff which included Dr. Mary Kay Rizzolo, Dr. Susan Parish, Dr. Glenn Fujiura, and Richard Hemp. It was during this time that the project became the State of the States in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Ongoing Longitudinal Data Project of National Significance.
While at UIC, Dr. Braddock founded the Department of Disability and Human Development and established the first Disability Studies Doctoral Program in the nation. He also served as the Founding Director for the UIC’s newly established University Center on Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD).
In 2001, Dr. Braddock accepted the position of Coleman-Turner Chair in Cognitive Disability and Professor of Psychiatry, the University of Colorado Health Sciences, and led the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU) until his retirement in 2018. He also was appointed Senior Assistant Vice President for Research, University of Colorado (2001 – 2018). He continued to receive federal funding for and serve as PI for the State of the States Project while it was housed in Colorado.
Dr. Braddock served on the board of the International Special Olympics for nine years and consulted with the Kennedy Foundation for 25 years. Click here to read Dr. Braddock's memorial to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, "Honoring Eunice Kennedy Shriver's Legacy in Intellectual Disability".
He served as President of the AAMR (AAIDD) from 1993 to 1994. Among his many awards are The Arc’s Distinguished National Service Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Public Health Association Disability Section in 2006.
The Braddock Disability Studies Collection
Following his retirement in 2018, the University of Colorado created the 'Braddock Disability Studies Collection' in his honor. The collection is a collection of books related to the history of disabilities and disabled persons. The Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities donated the collection to the library in 2019 on behalf of Dr. David Braddock. Dr. Braddock collected the items in the collection, and some of the books are signed by the authors for Dr. Braddock.
The collection has books from a range of years, and many books about the development of psychiatry
and treatment of disabled persons. The books in the collections have a bookplate designed by the staff at the library showing that the items in the collection belong to the Braddock collection. In addition, the books in the collection have a blue label over the call number, so that they can easily be distinguished from the other books on the shelf.
Books in this collection are shelved with other items in the general collection at the library. Items can be found by searching in Library Search using the keywords “Dr. David Braddock Disabilities Studies Collection” or the “Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities” as a phrase. Each item also has local subjects “History of Disabilities” and “History of Disabled Persons” added to the catalog record.
In addition to the books in this collection, the library has an archive of other materials included in the donation from Dr. Braddock and the Coleman Institute. Also in the donation were a collection of images related to disabilities and an extensive collection of historical pamphlets related to the history of psychiatry, many on the history of the institutions that housed disabled persons.
Braddock Collections available in CU Anschutz Digital Collections:
- Disabilities Images - Braddock Collection
- Materials - Braddock Collection
- Psychiatric Pamphlets - Braddock Collection
To request copies of images from CU's collections, click here to access the online request form.