The goals of this presentation are to share the strategies the UCEDD uses to sustain the Interdisciplinary Training Program as an online model, and, encourage discussion among other training directors, coordinators, and staff about innovative strategies to recruit, engage, retain, and effectively train a diverse pool of trainees.

Mentoring is fundamental to growth and success. Therefore, it is incumbent for mentors to have the ability to discuss challenges faced by culturally diverse individuals and, ultimately, have a repertoire of mentoring strategies to develop talents and skills in mentees from underrepresented backgrounds in LEND programs. This webinar will present mentoring theories so mentors will have a basic understanding of the mentoring process and provide strategies that promote communication and trust between mentor and mentee.

This panel of experts will describe the process used for recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and the challenges and barriers each faced throughout their experiences.

A mobile mental health clinic will discuss strategies for working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and disadvantaged and underserved populations who are experiencing a crisis situation. The webinar will focus on alternatives to police involvement, promoting client-centered communications, scene safety, de-escalation strategies, rapport building, and the role of self in crisis intervention.

This informal virtual meeting will give interested disability organizations an opportunity to meet the team and learn about the toolkit created to assist with local emergency preparedness outreach efforts. This will become an optional monthly meeting with which organizations can choose to join in order to receive support from AUCD's Technical Assistance and Training Center, learn about new resources, and collaboratively problem-solve with others when making inroads with local emergency preparedness efforts.

Calling all AUCD Training Directors and Trainees! Are you interested in learning about disability inclusion in local emergency and pandemic planning? Join us for a Prepared4ALL town hall meeting on January 29th, 2021 from 3-4pm ET. You'll learn more about Prepared4ALL, an innovative approach to coalition-building among local disability organizations and emergency planning agencies.

Immunizations are crucial to protect all people from vaccine-preventable illnesses. Some studies suggest that autistic individuals have lower rates of immunizations, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Multiple organizations have called for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be prioritized in COVID-19 vaccination distribution. Vaccine hesitancy and needle phobia are two likely contributors towards lower vaccination rates. One of the initial intervention projects from the AIR-P focuses on reducing needle anxiety and improving immunization rates among autistic individuals. This intervention was developed as a pilot to address needle anxiety in conjunction with Pfizer and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for use in an Improving Pediatric Immunization Care collaborative but has not been widely implemented. The AIR-P network provides an opportunity to implement this needle anxiety intervention in multiple sites. Measures of success for this intervention would include vaccination rates among autistic individuals and satisfaction with the vaccine administration process.

Join this webinar to hear from three CDC sister grantees that are coordinating to include people with disabilities in emergency preparedness! The webinar will feature updates from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)'s Prepared4ALL initiative of the National Center on Disability Inclusion and Emergency Preparedness, along with strategies for connecting with state and local public health officials in the COVID-19 response and beyond. Partners from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) will share updates on disability inclusion efforts, including regional and local approaches.

This interactive workshop introduces data visualization, including a step-by-step process and tips to creating an accessible infographic. Participants will gain basic skills and understand the utility of infographics to make data more accessible. Participants are encouraged to bring infographics to contribute to discussion. After the presentation, participants should be able to apply their knowledge by synthesizing data into a simple narrative and design their own infographic.

Join our organizations, state-level jurisdictions, and CDC guests to hear about promising practices on how states are reaching people with disabilities. This webinar addressed promising practices in communication for reducing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and disseminating accessible messages.

The Nisonger Center will be hosting it's annual Nisonger Institute on Scarcity of Medical Resources: Racial and Disability Equity on Friday, May 21st. Disparities in health care for people who have disabilities and for people of color was and is a common experience in our society. The Covid-19 pandemic and social unrest of 2020 sharpened our awareness of these disparities, particularly at the intersection of race and disability. This diverse panel will discuss policy and practice issues impacting scarcity of medical resources.

The 2021 Autism CARES Meeting will be held Wednesday, July 21st from 2 PM - 5 PM ET via Zoom. This virtual event is an opportunity for HRSA-funded CARES grantees (representing research, training, and state systems) to share information about activities within their respective networks, discuss emerging trends, and facilitate meaningful collaboration. The meeting includes both panels and roundtable discussions.

Dr. Jennifer Ames from the AIR-P Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Health Research Node, will describe ongoing research examining reproductive health and obstetrics/gynecology health care gaps for autistic people, inclusive of female, transgender, and gender-diverse identities. The presentation will focus on topics such OB/GYN clinic visits, cervical cancer screenings, and use of hormonal contraception, with particular attention to differences across sociodemographic characteristics. Future work investigating obstetric care quality and pregnancy experiences will also be discussed.

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Action Plan calls for UCEDDs to work with their Consumer Advisory Committees (CACs) to incorporate specific goals, objectives, and actions steps to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion into their five-year plans. In this virtual workshop, UCEDD leaders and staff will explore how to effectively accomplish this priority within and across the UCEDD core functions.

Presenters from The Ohio State University (OSU) Nisonger Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) will provide an overview of knowledge translation (KT), discuss general methods and specific strategies to conduct KT activities with stakeholders, and describe their research project's KT model and process. Participants will also see examples developed by the team in consultation with the project's Disability Experience Expert Panel, a group of research partners with intellectual and developmental disabilities.