BBI Staff
Deepti Samant, M.S. (Rehab), M.S. (ECE),
Director of International Programs
Deepti Samant is a Director of International Programs at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI). Her areas of focus include inclusive development, employment and economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities, and strategies to promote assistive technology service delivery.
Samant is the Project Director of the NIDRR funded Center on Effective Rehabilitation Technology to identify, document, and analyze models of rehabilitation technology (RT) service delivery effective in promoting successful employment outcomes. She has participated in instrument design, data collection, and data analysis on multiple studies such as the impact of corporate practices on the employment of persons with disabilities, longitudinal cost-benefit assessment of the use of workplace accommodations, evaluation of a technical assistance center on self-employment, and emergency preparedness and response issues for persons with disabilities.
Samant also worked for the Secretariat of the Global Partnership for Disability and Development, where she primarily managed research and knowledge translation activities. She has participated in the coordination and implementation of a demonstration project in mainstreaming disability in poverty reduction and other development strategies in Mozambique, and managed a team of consultants working on a study of inclusive disaster management practices in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States.
She is passionately interested in advancing the empowerment and independence of people with disabilities through social and attitudinal changes in developing nations, and has investigated policy and systemic failures in increasing the employment of Indians with disabilities.
Ms. Samant has published articles and presented on inclusive employment and effective corporate practices, accessibility of technology and access to appropriate AT, practical implications of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on legal capacity and employment outcomes focusing on countries with low-resources, and distance education.
Ms. Samant has earned a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (University of California–Irvine), and a Bachelor’s in Telecommunication Engineering (University of Mumbai). She has professional experience in the fields of vocational counseling, website accessibility, and independent living.
Curricula Vita
Vita: D. Samant (Word format) | Vita: D. Samant (PDF format)
Selected Publications
- Corporate Culture and Employment of People With Disabilities: Role of Social Workers and Service Provider Organizations
by D. Samant, M. Soffer, B. Hernandez, M. Adya, O. Akinpelu, P. Blanck, et. al
Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation (Vol. 8, No. 3 & 4, July 2009) - Workplace Accommodations: Occupational Therapists as Mediator in the Interactive Process [PDF file]
Naomi Schreuer, William Myhill, Deepti Samant, Tal Aratan-Bergman & Peter Blanck.
31 Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, & Rehabilitation (2009). - Accessible Cyberinfrastructure-enabled Knowledge Communities in the Disability Community (2007).
William N. Myhill, Derrick L. Cogburn, Deepti Samant, Benjamin Addom, & Peter Blanck.
18 Assistive Technology Journal (forthcoming 2008). - Employment of People with Disabilities: Twenty-five Years Back and Ahead.
Peter Blanck, Meera Adya, William N. Myhill, Deepti Samant, & Pei-Chun Chen.
25 Law & Inequality 323 (2007). - Distance Education Initiatives and Their Early 21st Century Role in the Lives of People with Disabilities.
William N. Myhill, Deepti Samant, David Klein, Shelley Kaplan, María Verónica Reina, & Peter Blanck.
In Focus on Distance Education Developments (Edward P. Bailey, ed., Nova Science Publishers, 2007)
Word format [.doc]
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