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.
Navigating the educational landscape for my children and advocating for other students with I/DD has been fraught with systemic barriers that perpetuate segregation and limit academic opportunities. As a parent and advocate for inclusive education, I've witnessed discriminatory practices that funnel students with I/DD into reductive life skills paths based solely on their disability classification, denying them an academic education. Drawing from personal experiences, I aim to unveil the harsh realities and challenges in advocating for inclusive education within a system that defaults to low expectations for students with I/DD. The exclusionary experiences of these students are masked within data presented to the California Department of Education (CDE) and other State Departments of Education, perpetuating invisibility and marginalization. My presentation will shed light on these issues and offer actionable insights and strategies from years of advocacy efforts.
Indiana Complex Care Coordination Collaborative (IC4) at Indiana University School of Medicine is creating a patient-facing website for adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (AIDD) to promote health and wellness and build confidence in interacting with the medical community. Components include webpages, videos and worksheets which address healthy habits, engaging in healthcare, and self-management of chronic illnesses. In collaboration with health messengers from Special Olympics Indiana (SOI), we are creating videos and social stories to help AIDD prepare for specific medical exams (belly, chest, ear-nose-throat, genitalia, etc.) and procedures (mammogram, dental, colonoscopy, EEG, radiology, sleep study, audiology, etc.) Initial scripts and ideas are created by IC4 medical professionals then vetted by SOI health messengers who are employed part-time to contribute to this work. All components are significantly redirected and modified based on feedback.
Ableism can be defined as prejudice or bias based on a person's disability and fosters the belief that people with disabilities are inferior. American society values individualism and capitalism, which can promote ableism. Allies and advocates who work in various roles need to raise their consciousness and open their eyes to the ways in which oppression exists. The purpose of this article is to provide advocates, allies, educators, and service providers with tools to critically self-examine their own identity, positionality, and power to fight ableism within our society. This article will outline how to examine their own Positionality, Opportunity, Wokeness, Empathy, and Reflexivity (POWER) to act in advocacy and allyship dismantling ableism and fostering social justice.
Although research documents an association between low expectations and poor community living and participation (CLP) outcomes for individuals with ID, there remains a gap in understanding which factors most impactfully influence expectations; a gap that prevents an advancement of meaningful and effective policies and strategies in support of positive CLP outcomes. Further, research on CLP outcomes commonly excludes individuals with/family members of individuals with ID- thereby limiting an understanding of those most influential/impacted by low expectations and diminished CLP outcomes. Disentangling research on the factors that influence CLP expectations has the potential to enhance CLP outcomes by highlighting the factors that should be maximized to enhance expectations or addressed to minimize low expectations.
Dogs can play an important role in life of a person with a disability. This support revolves around the human-animal bond. Dogs creates a sense of connectedness, belonging, and unconditional love. Dogs provide their owners with a reason to socialize and exercise, and are described as social lubricants, helping their owner to connect to other humans. Interacting with dogs helps reduce stress alleviate conditions such as depression and anxiety while increasing empathy and self-esteem. Many of the impacts dogs provide are preventative factors for suicide. A correlation potentially exists between disability and suicide risk. Moses (2018) posits that disability is a fundamental cause of suicide behavior because disability can be a chronic source of pain or stress that can spread to all aspects of life that results in social isolation and a feeling of being a burden to others. Yet, dog ownership may be balancing force to prevent this suicide ideation.
I will tell my story with lived experience with a seizure disorder, epilepsy and mental health illnesses. In my Mexican culture Disability is a taboo and I was denied my diagnosis because of it. Listeners will learn how I got diagnosed later in life and how difficult it has been to defeat my inner ableist. This greatly affected my quality of life and the way I viewed myself. I will talk about how Self Advocacy helped me accept myself and how important it is to break stigmas.
I'm a mom of two children with level 3 autism and also a poet. We live in Santa Cruz, California with their dad, and I'm their paid family caregiver. Recently I completed a chapbook of poetry entitled Wabe-sabe. Through these poems, I explore our lives and the impact that autism--and the people around us who observe but do not understand our family--have on us. My poems are through the lens of a mother, a caregiver, a Turkish-American Muslim, a guide to this world we live in. They are intended to invite you in and give you a glimpse of our experiences. In this TASH Talk, I will read a couple of my poems and invite audience questions.
Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are more likely to have poorer health outcomes and a shorter lifespan than the general population. Health is influenced by many factors, two of which are disease burden and engagement with primary and preventive care. In this presentation, we will share our study findings of common medical conditions and primary and preventive care utilization in 158 adults with IDD, as well as common caregiver concerns. We will bring our findings to life through a first-hand account from a parent of an adult with IDD, who will share her personal journey of supporting her son to successfully access necessary preventative care, and the impact this had on their family.
Nick Sampson has been working at Home Depot for over 17 years. He has had worked hard to find and maintain that employment. Mr. Sampson has had various experiences being supported both positively and also in ways that could be considered, offensive, demeaning, and dehumanizing. We want to share his first-hand experience and use his perspective to discuss how impactful the DSP/Person supported relationship can be and what steps we can take to generate best-outcomes for people we support.
As a medium of storytelling and information dissemination, podcasts hold immense power in shaping public discourse and perceptions. When it comes to inclusive education, they offer a unique platform to highlight diverse voices and experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of inclusivity in learning environments. Through engaging narratives and expert interviews, podcasts can dismantle preconceived notions and play a pivotal role in advocating for educational reforms that accommodate all learners. They serve as a beacon of awareness and a catalyst for change, inspiring communities to embrace and support inclusive practices. In this TASH talk, I will underscore the transformative potential of podcasts in promoting positive attitudes toward inclusive education, thereby contributing to a more equitable society.
