AUCD 2026 Conference
November 8-11 | Washington, D.C.
November 8-11 | Washington, D.C.
Monday, November 9, 2026
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Concurrent sessions are 75-minute small group discussions or panel presentations.
Most accessibility programs stall because no one owns outcomes. This session shows how to operationalize accessibility across complex institutions using governance, procurement, and measurable KPIs. Based on enterprise experience managing 70 plus systems and 600 plus sites, the session delivers methods to reduce backlog, increase SLA adherence above 90 percent, and drive enforceable vendor accountability.
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Strong partnerships between UCEDDs and AT Act programs can expand access, improve service coordination, and strengthen disability systems change efforts. This session will highlight successful state-level collaboration strategies, lessons learned, and practical approaches for building sustainable relationships that benefit individuals with disabilities and their families. Relevant to disability policy, assistive technology, community living, education, workforce development, health, and interdisciplinary leadership.
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This interactive session demonstrates DB101's calculators and estimators, shows how UCEDDs, LEND programs, and state partners can embed the tool into transition, employment, and benefits-planning services, and invites participants to problem-solve how to bring innovative benefits-planning tools to their own networks.
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Instead of taking place inside a medical setting, this unique and innovative Project ECHO brings together community organizations (e.g. museums, parks, theatres) to learn from each other and become places of belonging. Using the Project ECHO structure, presenters will discuss how other LEND, UCEDD, and other related programs, can use their connections to make their communities more accessible and inclusive for individuals with disabilities and their families.
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Your greatest leadership strength isn't pristinely polished: it's your lived experience. Join two disability advocates, educators, and parents, as we challenge the myth of perfection and instead celebrate the wisdom derived from navigating disability systems first-hand. In this session, you will discover how authenticity, vulnerability, and "messy" experience can become your post powerful tools for advocacy, connection, and lasting change. This session is open to all disciplines.
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In this session, we will outline the formal mechanisms that we used to forge a strategic and intentional collaboration between three federally funded elements – UCEDD, LEND and IDDRC - at the University of Rochester. Our goal is to share our experience so it may serve as a roadmap to other institutions who are trying to bridge the gap between disparate programs that span clinical, community, training and research efforts.
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This panel presentation will review two innovative training models where a UCEDD located in an urban area partnered with a rural, under resourced LEA to support children with disabilities. The first training model built inclusive education capacity by training school-based staff to provide responsive behavioral support to children with disabilities. The second training model strengthened school-family partnerships by working directly with school staff and administrators, families, and support agencies.
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Adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) experience significant disparities in preventive health care and health outcomes. As part of an interdisciplinary, multistate demonstration project, the ten current disability and health state programs (DHSP) co-developed and implemented a person-centered, wellness and care coordination protocol to support adults with IDD to identify and select unmet health needs to address with wellness goals, accessible resources, and linkage supports.
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Digital mental health interventions (DMHI), interventions that are accessed through online webpages or mobile applications, deliver evidence-based mental health interventions with similar efficacy to in-person services. DMHIs can be easily adapted with varying levels of community engagement using participatory action methods. The following presentation highlights lessons learned, including success and challenges, in developing and disseminating DMHIs with the disability community to help expand access to similar programs.
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This session presents national findings on employment outcomes after state level Section 14(c) repeal. It uses RSA 911 data from over 270,000 vocational rehabilitation participants with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Repeal alone was associated with lower six-month employment retention. VR funding and Medicaid enrollment did not buffer this effect. Medicare enrollment was the only factor that reduced this negative association. Relevant for VR counselors, policymakers, and disability employment researchers.
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The September 2026 IDD Counts Summit will bring together self-advocates, researchers, federal agencies, and community partners to advance how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are represented in national data, especially data used to understand prevalence and health. Presenters will share Summit priorities and takeaways, including work to clarify who is included in the IDD population, estimate developmental disability prevalence using the DD Act definition, and improve national IDD data.
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We'll present an innovative partnership between UCEDDs and their co-located Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) programs driving a translational science approach to disability health research. We'll describe the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS)-funded "Disability as Difference: Reducing Researcher Roadblocks (D2/R3)" study, our UCEDD-CTSA collaboration to extend it, and how this responds to the NIH 2026–2030 Strategic Plan for Disability Health Research's call for interdisciplinary, ecosystem-level action.
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