At the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD), we work together so that Iowans with disabilities and their families enjoy healthy, independent lives in the community.

CDD is home to Iowa's tertiary level evaluation and diagnosis center and clinics, Iowa's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), Iowa's Leadership Education in Developmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program, and Iowa's Hawkeye Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (Hawk-IDDRC). 

Main entrance to the Center for Disabilities and Development

CDD Clinical Services

The Center for Disabilities and Development Clinical Services are delivered at a variety of clinics based at CDD. Clinicians interact to provide patients and families the benefits of multidisciplinary care. 

Community image - young girl, toddler and DSP outdoors

Iowa's UCEDD

Iowa's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) provides services and supports, training and information, for Iowans with disabilities, their families and providers.

2023-2024 LEND trainees

Iowa's LEND

The interdisciplinary LEND program improves the lives of people with disabilities across the lifespan by training pre-service professionals to assume leadership roles in their disciplines.

IDDRC - Autism Journey

Hawk-IDDRC

Based at CDD, Iowa's Hawkeye Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, the Hawk-IDDRC, is one of only 15 IDDRCs in the country. 

Main entrance to the Center for Disabilities and Development

23 %

of Iowans have a disability

Campers from Iowa's 2023 National Summer Transportation Institute explore bridges in Kent State Park

75

CDD is celebrating 75 years of service to Iowans with disabilities

Mike Hoenig demonstrates Braille to school children

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Iowa's UCEDD manages federal, state and community contracts

CDD Spotlight

The CDD Spotlight highlights unique services and programs, trending topics, policymaking at the state and federal levels, and disability issues we emphasize in our daily work.

We are building an archive of previous Spotlight features where you can revisit services and programs, and find updated information.

Visit the Spotlight again soon to see what's new!

Bacon Buddies exhibitors, mentors and volunteers are seen in a collage of photos

Bacon Buddies, Year Two

Celebrating its second year in Muscatine County, the Bacon Buddies program provides individuals with disabilities the “confidence and skills needed
for a fulfilling life.”

CDD 75th anniversary event group photo thumbnail

75th Anniversary Celebration for CDD

CDD celebrated more than seven decades of providing services and supports to Iowans with disabilities, and their families and providers, on July 26th.

Events

Counterpoint: The Politics of (International) Writing promotional image

Counterpoint: The Politics of (International) Writing

Monday, October 14, 2024 7:30pm
Voxman Music Building
How do politics affect what poets or novelists write, and even how they write it? How does literature inform political discourse? What is cultural diplomacy, why is it so important, and what is the UI’s role in promoting it? For this inaugural event in the Obermann Center’s new Counterpoint public conversation series, Christopher Merrill — poet, nonfiction writer, translator, editor, and director of the UI’s renowned International Writing Program — and Loren Glass, a historian of creative...
Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Director (2025–26) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Director (2025–26)

Wednesday, October 30, 2024 5:00pm
Is there a burning topic in your discipline or a topic that cuts across disciplines that we should bring to campus? Is there a format for the conversation that can energize an intellectual community around that topic? That might be the perfect topic for an Obermann Symposium! These imaginative half- and whole-day symposia connect the arts and humanities with design, politics, health sciences, environmental studies, technology, and other disciplines via a compelling topic. Symposia should...
Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 5:00pm
Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research, Book Ends—Obermann/OVPR Book Completion Workshop supports University of Iowa faculty from disciplines in which publishing a monograph is required for tenure and promotion. The award is designed to assist faculty members in turning promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books. Applications for upcoming Book Ends workshops are due Feb. 19, 2025.

Learn about us!

CDD serves patients and families, community members, pre-service trainees, and researchers.

About CDD