The National University of Ireland welcomes 150 participants from over 40 countries and a stellar cast of over 30 experts as faculty as they examine disability and civil rights. Join from anywhere and watch the proceedings live on YouTube.

The importance of accessible health promotion initiatives continues to be an issue within the IDD populations as age-related problems and lack of environmental control impacts their health needs. These challenges show the need for the scaling up of evidence-based programs and health promotion efforts into the communities where people with IDD live, work, and play.

Save the Date for the 2017 START National Training Institute (SNTI), the second annual training event offered by the Center for START Services, a non-profit program at UNH/IOD. SNTI was founded in 2016 to promote dialogue and collaboration in our continuous effort to improve practices, service outcomes, and life experiences for individuals with intellectual/developmental disability and co-occurring mental health conditions (IDD/MH).

The Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) in partnership with the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University (GSU) is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications for the inaugural AUCD LEADERSHIP ACADEMY. The academy will be held on the downtown GSU campus in Atlanta, Georgia on June 25-30, 2017.

On Sunday evening immediately before the Disability Policy Seminar, AUCD is hosting a special Trainee Policy Summit! Attendees will have exclusive access to Hill staffers and former trainees now working in policy, and learn from the experts how to best craft your message for Wednesday's Hill visits. An evening reception will provide a comfortable background for trainees to meet and network with over 200 peers from around the country.

A three-part webinar series to launch AUCD's new National Center on Disability in Public Health took place over the last month. These webinars focused on; evidence-based strategies of the National Center on Disability in Public Health and how participants can be involved; evidence-based approaches to build capacity towards inclusion of people who have disabilities in health promotion efforts; and management strategies that support inclusion and action plans that sustain change. Certificates of attendance and CHES credits are offered to participants, who both attended the live webinar and listen to the archives.

Join our national learning group! This group will meet monthly for the next 12-18 months to develop a network-wide strategy for implementing healthcare transition efforts that include people with disabilities and families.

Are you an Emerging Leader or new to policy advocacy and education? Are you interested in talking more about what's happening in federal policy? Are you ready to connect with your Members of Congress? AUCD is offering 3 virtual policy events, register today!

In 2020, over 35 million eligible voters will be people with disabilities, according to Rutgers University. That figure jumps to over 62 million eligible voters when you add in family members in the same household. Millions of others are connected to disability in work and community. AUCD is excited to join partners across the disability community working to increase the political power of people with disabilities by sharing resources and getting folks registered to vote. This National Disability Voter Registration Week is part of our plans to continuously share information and resources up to Election Day 2020.

In this webinar, we will share about AUCD's Language and Communications Access Plan and lessons learned from the first two years of implementation. From 2019-2021, the UCEDD Resource Center (URC) supported a pilot implementing the plan, with the creation of the Plain Language Advisory Group and Spanish Language Caucus. Join us to learn about the work of both groups, what the URC has learned in its efforts to improve the language and communications accessibility of its technical assistance, and how this might apply to the work at your center or program.

Dr. Rujuta B. Wilson provided education on sleep difficulties in autism in this webinar. The following areas were addressed: (1) prevalence and diagnosis of sleep difficulties in autism, (2) the current knowledge in the field of why sleep difficulties occur in autism, and (3) behavioral and pharmacologic treatment for sleep difficulties.

This webinar will prepare participants to attend the 2022 Disability Policy Seminar. AUCD's policy team will review the basics of how the federal government operates, provide tips for meeting with policymakers, and how to frame policy priorities for effective impact.

This month, AIR-P celebrated Autism Acceptance Month with two webinar presentations! We held a back-to-back webinar session as follows. 12-1pm PT / 3-4pm ET: The Intersection of Autism, Health, Poverty and Racial Equity (2022 National Autism Indicators Report (NAIR)). This presentation will be provided by Dr. Lindsay Shea and Dr. Kristy Anderson from Drexel Autism Institute. 1-2pm PT / 4-5pm ET: Why Studying Puberty in Autism Research Matters. This presentation will be provided by Dr. Jenny Mai Phan, postdoctoral fellow at University of Wisconsin Madison.

This year's TA Institute will be a virtual event over 4 sessions. Attendees will have an opportunity to network, hear from our federal partners, and learn of new initiatives, national trends, and other information vital to the administration of the UCEDD Programs.

In this webinar, Dr. Kristen Choi will discuss emerging evidence on using telehealth to deliver therapy to children with autism spectrum disorder (e.g., speech therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavior analysis). Using data from a recent survey of parents in Southern California, the mental health impact of the pandemic on parents and their children will be discussed, as well as how COVID-related stress affected perceptions of telehealth.