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.
Friendships are valuable social relationships that result in personal benefit and also provide a vehicle for developmental gains. Families and educators value the development of friendships between students with and without severe disabilities in and out of school. Yet, friendships between students with and without severe disabilities remain infrequent. Interventions to promote friendship typically focus on the social and behavioral skills of students with disabilities, but friendships involve two (or more) people interacting in specific contexts. Thus, we conducted structured observations of classroom interactions using an interval recording protocol for a student with severe disabilities and a peer comparison student without disabilities in four inclusive early elementary classrooms. Findings indicate that inclusion alone may not be sufficient to promote social interactions and friendships with peers. We highlight specific interventions and implications for practice.
Associate Professor, Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Zachary Rossetti, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Special Education in the Teaching and Learning Department at Boston University's Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. His research examines the social belonging and participation of people with intellectual and developmental... Read More →
I am interested in supporting self-advocacy and self-determination, understanding the experiences of LGBTQ+ people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, and promoting access to sexuality education.
Wednesday December 9, 2020 12:30pm - 1:15pm EST
Virtual PlatformOnline
