The Institute for Human Development (IHD) was established in 1967 with funds appropriated through Arizona Rehabilitation Services Administration's Establishment Grants program. Initially, the Institute's emphasis was vocational rehabilitation. During the mid-1970s, in response to the Education of All Handicapped Children's Act, the Institute broadened its scope of work to address the special education needs of children. Today the Institute is concerned with disabilities of all types that occur throughout the life span.

In 1990 the IHD was designated a Arizona University Center on Disabilities through a grant from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services.