The most popular Google search term in 2006 was the name Paris Hilton; five spots below in the No. 6 position was the word autism.

That fact, according to Steve Warren, the director of the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, proves that the quest for information about the disorder is significant.

“When you climb up next to Paris Hilton, it’s an important issue,” Warren told the annual gathering of the Friends of the Life Span Institute on Saturday at the Adams Alumni Center on the Kansas University campus.

That’s why it made sense for the Beach Center on Disability, one of the centers that make up the Life Span Institute, to develop a major Web site devoted to connecting people to information about disabilities.

“As far as we know, it’s the only one of its kind in the United States,” said Rud Turnbull, director of the Beach Center.

The Web site, which was launched April 1, serves to develop an online community where people and policymakers can exchange ideas, information and references regarding disabilities.

“We think we can make a difference from the bottom of the streets to the top of the policymakers,” Turnbull said.

Since its launch, Turnbull said, it has been among the top 15 most-viewed Web sites devoted to disabilities.

The Web site is the most recent development for the Beach Center in a year when it has brought in $3 million in grants. The center has published 196 articles in the past seven years.

Marianna Beach – she and her husband, Ross, are the namesakes of the Beach Center – lauded the new developments with the center.

“We’re thrilled with what they’re doing with technology … to reach people,” Beach said at the reception.

The reception was a gathering of the Friends of the Life Span Institute, individuals and couples who make a $1,000 donation to the institute annually.

Some of that money was given to young researchers in the form of awards and grants on Saturday night.

Christa Anderson and Meredith Poore, both KU students, received the Life Span Institute Research Award.

Kathleen Kyzar earned the Borchardt Scholarship at the Beach Center, named after Ron Borchardt, a distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at KU.