From Doubt to Empowerment: Caregiver Perspective on AAC Adoption

Families often hesitate to adopt AAC due to misconceptions that it hinders speech development. This session shares caregiver perspectives and current evidence highlighting AAC's impact on communication, independence, and participation. Attendees will explore qualitative findings from parent interviews and receive clinician-ready educational resources designed to support family-centered counseling and early AAC adoption. Relevant to speech-language pathology, special education, occupational therapy, early intervention, and related rehabilitation disciplines.

Transportation Barriers and Opportunities for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Georgia: Findings from a Statewide Needs Assessment

This presentation shares findings from a statewide study on transportation for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Georgia. We explored how transportation affects access to jobs, healthcare, shopping, and community activities. Findings highlight major barriers, including limited transit options and service gaps, while also identifying opportunities to improve access. The presentation discusses practical recommendations to help people with disabilities participate more fully in their communities.

Action Over Information Overload: Helping Families of Transition-Age Youth (13–21) with Disabilities Set Clear Priorities

Participants will learn an innovative, replicable tool to partner with families of transition-age youth (13–21) with disabilities. This holistic, person-centered tool combines and simplifies overwhelming, siloed transition guides across domains like healthcare and education. By reducing stress and complexity, it empowers individuals and families to prioritize what matters most. This session is especially relevant for professionals supporting disabled youth and their families.

• Download Transition Poster v4.0.pptx

Working with Autistic People

The poster discusses working with autistic people. It covers negative experiences of some autistic employees and provides recommendations on how to work with these autistic individuals. Some information in the poster is also relevant to all employees, including workers who have other disabilities. The poster is relevant to all disciplines.

Leveraging Lived Experience to Navigate Employment: The Evolution of Parent and Peer Mentorship in Employment Supports for Adults with IDD

What happens when lived experience drives intervention development? This poster explores the evolution of parent and peer mentorship across seven years of research to improve employment outcomes for adults with IDD. Each study built on the last, leading to a new integrated mentorship model. We share key findings, lessons learned, and the foundation for its first randomized controlled trial.

Well-Being Outcomes of Community-Based Work Training for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

How does meaningful work influence well-being for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)? This presentation reports findings from an evaluation of Smile Farms, a Long Island, NY?based nonprofit providing community-based work and training opportunities. Participants reported high levels of confidence, optimism, social support, and overall well-being, demonstrating the value of inclusive work in supporting self-determined well-being. Relevant disciplines include disability services, vocational rehabilitation, community advocacy, and public health.

From information silos to shared knowledge: Organizing information for communication, collaboration, and future technologies

The West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities has organized information using familiar tools such as Excel to develop resource directories, training databases, and other knowledge management tools. This process has improved alignment, reduced duplication, strengthened communication, and created a foundation for future technologies, including AI-assisted information retrieval and knowledge sharing. This 75-minute panel will showcase the process, development, and practical application of these tools.

Employment Despair: Building A Framework to Understand Vocational Disengagement

Employment is central to adult identity. People with disabilities face persistent labor market exclusion. This presentation introduces, employment despair, a novel construct describing despair due to diminished vocational agency, vocational identity, and belonging due to structural and systemic issue. It integrates Social Cognitive Career Theory, Person-Environment Fit and Narrative Identity, the framework helps to explain employment disengagement and identified intervention targets for rehabilitation, workplace inclusion, rehabilitation education, and policy.

Scaffolded Belonging in Transition Programs: Preliminary Qualitative Evidence from Compass and Overnight Programs

Youth with disabilities in transition are often served through models emphasizing discrete skills or job readiness. While important, these approaches understate relational conditions that make independence possible. This poster presents preliminary qualitative evidence from Compass and Overnight Programs, where a nested scaffolding approach distributes support across participants, providers, and community partners. Recurring themes include belonging, friendship, advocacy, and emerging independence, suggesting relational conditions function as active ingredients in transition programming.

Expanding AAC Peer Support Across the Nation with AAC Communicators

This poster will highlight the development of a national AAC network that centers AAC communicators in leadership, creates accessible peer support resources, and expands opportunities for connection, mentorship, and community. The poster will also describe strategies used to engage AAC communicators, build a national coalition, and develop sustainable resources that support peer support opportunities across the country.

Stronger Together[ED2.1]: Efforts to enhance state and community collaboration to promote transition from high school and employment outcomes

This presentation will describe one state's efforts to enhance transition from high school and competitive integrated employment outcomes through two related projects focused on interagency collaboration, local community engagement, supported employment capacity building, and Employment First policy analysis. We will highlight UCEDD leadership in the projects, processes used to engage people with disabilities in project leadership, strategies used to promote sustainable systems change, and outcomes from each project.

An Accessibility Check: Comparing Evaluation Tools for Improving Access to Digital Information

This poster compares traditional accessibility checkers and large language model (LLM) tools to evaluate how well they identify accessibility issues in digital documents. The findings show that LLM-based tools provide more detailed feedback and actionable recommendations for improving accessibility. Attendees will learn how these tools can support the creation of more inclusive digital materials. Relevant disciplines include disability services, higher education, instructional design, educational technology, rehabilitation, and information technology.