Welcome to the 2020 TASH Conference - Virtual Edition website! We’re so glad you are here!
Each year, the TASH Conference brings together individuals with significant disabilities and their allies 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 advocates, leaders, and subject matter experts from every corner of the disability community. Conference attendees play an important role in supporting individuals with significant disabilities to overcome various barriers in order to live their best lives. Central to this work is the premise that individuals reach their optimal potential only when they are given the opportunity to live, work and thrive across the lifespan in the same communities we are all members of. The conference is intentionally designed to support the interests of professors and researchers from leading institutions; those involved in local, state, and federal governments and public policy; special and general educators, and school administrators; home and community-based service providers; students, family members, and most importantly, self-advocates with lived experience.
This year, while we are taking the conference virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that our unique approach to providing exceptional first-rate content and building strong community ties and connections across various stakeholders will yield an extraordinary event! We have taken extra steps to bring people closer together during these times, as well as to create an amazing virtual environment that expands our knowledge, spurs our creative thinking, and focuses on healthy living and having fun! Our conference theme, Feel the Power of Inclusion, reinforces the importance of our continued commitment to promoting a world of equity and opportunity for all, and is predicated on the value of bringing together diverse perspectives and experiences in an effort to build strong human connectivity and spur collective action.
Need technical assistance during the conference? Please email our support staff at helpdesk@tash.org.
Students with severe disabilities make more academic and social progress while educated in general education environments compared to isolated settings. Peer mentorship in inclusive high school and postsecondary environments is a cost effective, natural, and sustainable method to provide students with severe disabilities individualized support. Peer mentorship not only benefits the peer mentee by receiving high quality instruction and access to equitable social engagement but also promotes leadership, teaching, and advocacy development of the mentor through reciprocal learning. Peer mentoring provides the mentor with opportunities to understand the importance of inclusion of all individuals, regardless of disability, as valuable and contributing members of society. This poster will describe established high school and postsecondary peer mentoring models and best practices, tricks, and tips in instructing peer mentors to effectively implement individualized support.
