Welcome to the official website for the 2024 TASH Conference!
Each year, the TASH Conference brings together our constituents to share resources and success stories, learn about field-driven best practices, and network within a community engaged in shared values. The Conference is attended by passionate leaders, experts, and advocates from every corner of the disability community. Conference attendees are influential in their fields and communities, and play an important role in the provision of services and supports for individuals and organizations around the world; and include professors and researchers from leading institutions; those involved in local, state, and federal governments and public policy; special and general educators, and school administrators; self-advocates, adult service providers; students, family members, and many others. This year’s conference theme is Celebrate Together: Let the Good Times Roll!
Click on the "Registration and More" tab for additional information about our Conference location, registration, reserving a guest room, sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities, and more! The full Conference schedule is now available for viewing. Registered attendees will receive an invitation to log in and create a personalized schedule.
This qualitative research uncovers current and best inclusive practices in school-based transition programs for 18-21 year-old students with significant disabilities. Document analysis of published curricula, results of a mixed-method survey, and 24 semi-structured interviews offer multiple perspectives on the current status of transition programs as well as practices that uphold inclusivity, which are more likely to lead to inclusive adult life experiences. Findings show that many students expressed discontent with segregative aspects of transition programs and parents worked tirelessly to cobble together unique programs. Professional perspectives reveal that low-expectations often guided program decisions that led to segregative practices. Examples of promising and inclusive practices are also uncovered in the study. A review of the literature on inclusive transition programming and disability studies theoretical lens contextualize research findings.
We have created tools for students, families, and professionals that help leverage the IDEA evaluation process to not simply establish eligibility for Special Education, but as a guide to an IEP team, to a school, or even to a school district on how to support learners with extensive support needs in general education in a way that centers and respects the student and guarantees meaningful access, progress and engagement, is anti-ableist, and sets up the foundation for authentic relationships. There is a way to use the mandated documentation in anti-ableist, respectful, and strength-driven ways that center the student and their preferences, meaningful engagement, and authentic relationships, reframe the evaluation process as more humanistic, inclusive, empowering, and authentic, and that will help the evaluation team to reframe their ideas of Disability and Special Education.
This presentation will describe study results from a recent research project. The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher candidates were impacted by learning from individuals with disabilities through a Self-Advocate Guest Presenter Series. After attending the semester-long Presenter Series, 17 teacher candidates shared their perspectives through semi-structured interviews. During this presentation, we will share the main themes that resulted from our analysis as well as future implications for research and practice.
This session will present a case study of a culturally and linguistically diverse high school that implemented a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) emphasizing culturally responsive and restorative practices. By analyzing student, adult, policy, and structural factors through an anti-racist and anti-ableist lens, the school's leadership team shifted their disciplinary and support systems from focusing on control to promoting equitable and inclusive practices. The case study demonstrates how MTSS can be used to increase faculty competence in restorative pedagogy, benefiting all students, particularly those with disabilities who are disproportionately affected by punitive disciplinary practices. Attendees will gain practical strategies for implementing a similar approach in their schools.