Welcome to the 2021 TASH Conference - Virtual Edition website!
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 and spurs our creative thinking into action! Our Conference theme, Celebrating Community and Connections, reminds us of the value of gathering together as a diverse community to advance equity, opportunity and inclusion for all!
Need technical assistance during the conference? Please email our support staff at helpdesk@tash.org.
The 2021 TASH Conference is dedicated to TASH co-founder, Dr. Lou Brown. Learn more about Lou’s impact and legacy to the disability rights movement here.
This qualitative study used case study methodology to investigate behavioral skills training (BST) to teach parents to engage their young children with severe, multiple disabilities (i.e., vision and hearing impairments as well as cognitive and motor impairments) in shared reading, using adapted books. Specific strategies for use of BST with parents and young children with severe, multiple disabilities will be provided as will specific components of shared reading. Additionally, guidelines for selecting adapted books for young children with impairments in both vision and hearing will be shared. Results of two case studies will be shared with a focus on how parents of young children with severe, multiple disabilities come to view their children as literate and how do the children develop literacy skills.
