Anna Chistokhina

Anna Chistokhina

(​annachistokh@ya.ru)

Organization: Siberian Federal University; Non-Profit Organization "Social Innovation fund" 0f Krasnoyarsk region, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Presentation: Difficulties and Prospects of Organizing Employment for People with Mental Disabilities

Description: In this presentation we'll cover a report that provides an overview of the most obvious difficulties and prospects of organizing employment for people with mental disabilities in Russia in general and the Krasnoyarsk Territory in particular.

Emanuelle Dutra Fernandes de Souza

Emanuelle Dutra Fernandes de Souza

(emanuelle.dutra@gmail.com)

Organization: Special Olympics International Rio das Ostras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Co-presenter: Emily Klinger, USA Special Olympics

Presentation: Building Inclusion through Leadership and Skills Training

Description: This session will be led by a person with intellectual disabilities (ID). She will share her personal experience and those of other people with ID as they train for work, seek employment, and perform their jobs. The session will capture the importance of independence and learning valuable skills. The session intends to encourage the audience to partner with people with ID to provide this training, to develop opportunities, and to create inclusive environments.

Stephanie Fitzgerald

Stephanie Fitzgerald

(stephanie.fitz83@gmail.com)

Organization: Retired from Saint Paul Public Schools, Saint Paul, MN, United States

Co-presenter: Pierre Young, former St. Paul Public School student, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States

Presentation: Transition: What is it and what does it look like?

Description: Beginning with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the development of Individualized Education Programs for students ages 14 to 21, we will review transition programming for students with disabilities in the United States. We will emphasize preparing youth for work through work-based learning. A former student will join the presentation to speak to participants about his journey through transition programming to becoming a successful adult.

Carly Gilson

Carly Gilson

(carly.gilson@tamu.edu)

Organization: Texas A&M University College Station, Texas, United States

Co-presenters: Dr. James Sinclair, University of Oregon and Dr. David Blustein, Boston College | United States

Presentation: Work as a Means to Thrive, Survive, and Feel Alive

Description: Based on research studies, we will present on the employment rate for working-age adults (ages 18–64) with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and note that this rate has been historically low for decades. We will touch on making meaningful ways to fulfill needs and aspirations; systemic lived experiences of adults with IDD and their views of work, job duties, and responsibilities; career trajectory; social connections; work goals and challenges; and the impact of disability, family, and role models. 

Sam Graves

Sam Graves

(sambone.graves@gmail.com)

Organization: Accessible360, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Co-presenter: Ben Cantlon, Accessible360

Presentation: My Employment

Description: I will talk about my background and my work at Accessible360. I plan to have one of my co-workers speak on the importance of hiring people with disabilities, especially for Accessible360, which works with companies to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities.

Olivia Hester

Olivia Hester

(olivia.hester@tamu.edu)

Organization: Texas A&M UniversityCollege Station, Texas, United States

Presentation: Check-In/Check-Out: Performance Feedback During Vocational Training for Youth with Disabilities

Description: This presentation discusses Positive Behavior Intervention, which is widely used across the U.S. in addressing students with problematic behaviors, and the use of the "check-in/check-out" (CICO) program. CICO helps supervisors provide work-related performance feedback to interns with intellectual disabilities (ID) in vocational training. Furthermore, we will discuss the use of a modified version of CICO within a multiple-baseline design across participants in a vocational training setting. You will better understand the important role that supervisors play in providing supportive environments for individuals with ID and the type of intervention that interns with ID can use with their supervisors.

Yuka Ichiki

(y_ichiki@home.segasammy.co.jp)

Organization: Sega Sammy Holdings, Tokyo, Japan

Presentation: Promoting an Inclusive Work Environment: Endeavor of Sega Sammy Holdings

Description: Operating under an inclusive work environment model for all persons, including those with disabilities, diverse needs, LGBTQ+, and cultural and language differences, this presentation will cover the pathway for employees with disabilities. Company programs allow each employee to follow their dreams through inclusive work environments.

Alyssa Klein

Alyssa Klein

(alyssa.klein@state.mn.us)

Organization: State of Minnesota, Department of Employment and Economic Development, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States

Co-presenters: Sheila Koenig, Minnesota State Services for the Blind, Heather Kosec, Minnesota USA School District, Crystal Underdahl, Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, Two Minnesota High School Students | United States

Presentation: The Power of Youth Work Experience

Description: Early paid work experience is one of the most important factors for youth with disabilities to succeed at employment after graduating from high school. Schools and community providers can come together with students and families to make high quality work experience happen in creative ways. Participants will learn the key factors for success in making work experience happen in their community, and hear directly from students about what they learned about work and themselves.

Yuliya Lipes

Yulia Lipes

(yulinija@gmail.com)

Organization: Osobaya keramika (Special pottery), Zhizneny put' (Liferoute) charity foundation, Moscow, Russia

Co-presenter: Nikolay Filippov

Presentation: Special Pottery and Special Artists

Description: A potter in the program will share his story about his pathway to professional and personal growth through his art practice. Using the lens of pottery production, the presentation will also include live experience, touching on the diverse skills of various artists—from emerging to professional—and the social growth they gain by creating something for others.

Liliana Mayo

Liliana Mayo

(lilimayo@annsullivanperu.org​)

Organization: ​Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú-CASP and University of Kansas, Lima, Peru

Presentation: Systems and Stories in Peru: Employers on hiring quality people with autism, talk about social and economic systems and share stories of life during COVID-19​

Description: This session will capture the emphasis that employers have on hiring people with austim and provide stories of quality employees, and how the structural economic and social systems opporate in Peru regarding employment for persons with disabilities. The session will also touch on stories during the pandemic.

Marianna Orlinkova

Marianna Orlinkova

(orlinkova@mail.ru)

Organization: Center for Medical (Therapeutic) Pedagogy, Moscow, Russia

Presentation: Learning to Cook as a Way to Strengthen Social Skills for Individuals with Mental Disabilities

Description: This session will cover the lived experience of using the learned skills of food preparation as a way to have a conversation on connecting people professionally and how important these skills are for people with mental disabilities.

Nicole Rabinowitz

Nicole Rabinowitz

(nicole@inclusivenetworking.com)

Organization: Inclusive Networking, Minnesota, United States

Co-presenters: Tasya Kelen and Jess Waller, employers and organization employees

Presentation: Inclusive Employer and Employee Panel

Description: In this session, participants will learn how Inclusive Employer and Employee Panels empower businesses to educate each other about inclusive employment practices, gain a network of like-minded individuals to support Employment First Policies, and get the tools to build an inclusive employer and employee panel in their communities to create change for people with disabilities in the workplace.

Matthew Schuelka

Matthew Schuelka

(schu1168@umn.edu)

Organization: University of Minnesota, Rochester, Minnesota, United States

Presentation: Visualizing Lived Experience: Mapping and Geographical Tools to Better Understand and Analyze the Economic and Social Participation of Adults with Disabilities in Bhutan

Description: Based on a 2019 project while working in in the country of Bhutan, we will present on the differences of services and supports in rural versus urban settings and capture the differences of economic and social activities. This presentation will discuss physical distance and accessibility, the use of “GIS ethnographic mapping” to share lived experiences, and an analysis of studies performed in Bhutan.

Dickson J. Shekivuli

Dickson J. Shekivuli, MSc

(dixonsjuma@gmail.com)

Organization: Kitala General Consultancy, Lushoto, Tanga, Tanzania

Presentation: Assessment of Afterschool Vocational Education Training Programmes for Children with Disabilities in Tanzania

Description: The purpose of this research paper was to discover how vocational training centers can prepare people with disabilities for work, especially in soft-skilled jobs that are common in the hospitality and tourism industries. This study was carried out by assessing training curricula, learning environments, and teaching facilities in four registered, regular vocational training institutions.

Jan Šiška

Jan Šiška

(jan.siska@pedf.cuni.cz)

Organization: Charles University, Faculty of Education, Prague, Czechia

Co-presenter: Dr. Šárka Káňová, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czehia

Presentation: Disability, Employment, and Citizenship in Europe

Description: This presentation will overview how businesses seclude people with disabilities, but the lecture also emphasizes social inclusion through mainstreaming. Real-world examples will be used from Café Restaurant Kačaba, which uses inclusive practices.

Alli Strong-Martin

Alli Strong-Martin

(astrongmartin@lifeworks.org)

Organization: Lifeworks Services, Inc.United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Co-presenter: Ashley Oolman, Lifeworks, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Presentation: Towards Equity: Confronting Capitalist Notions of Value, for Radical Inclusion in Employment

Description: In this session, we will explore how disability and difference have been conceptualized over time in workplaces and in society. Yet we remember that discrimination, segregation, stigma, and prejudice toward people with disabilities still persist in U.S. society and around the world. Join us, as together we challenge capitalist thought, counteract pervasive and problematic models of disability, and reimagine the future of workplaces and disability-inclusive employment.

Sergiy Sydoriv

Sergiy Sydoriv

(sergiysyd@gmail.com)

Organization: Ivano-Frankivsk college, Precarpathian national university, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

Co-presenter: Leonida Ponomarova, School of Equal Opportunities, NGO, Ukraine

Presentation: Education, Employment, Policy: Three Stories of Inclusion in Ukraine

Description: This presentation will overview action steps in education, employment, and policy in Ukraine. It will describe inclusive education learning communities with teachers and parents; promote human rights that empower youth, women, and persons with disabilities from the grass roots to the governmental levels; and advocate for systemic change in government policy.

Morgan Turner

Morgan Turner

(morgan.turner@uky.edu)

Organization: Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States

Co-presenter: Johnny Collett and Austin Nugent; University of Kentucky, Louisville, United States

Presentation: Morgan’s Musings: My Successful Journey to Inclusive Employment in Higher Education

Description: This session will be a pre-recorded presentation of the real-life experience of Morgan, a person with a disability who tells his story of finding, maintaining, and thriving in employment. After the presentation we will engage participants in a live discussion of advocacy and strategy to improve employment and awareness.

Prof. Nguyen Viet Nhan

Prof. Nguyen Viet Nhan

(dcvn@ogcdc.org)

Organization: Funds of Genetic Counseling & Disabled Children, Hue, Vietnam

Co-presenters: Dr. Iris Drower, Arizona State University & Mary Lou Fulton, Teachers College

Presentation: Community Building for Valuable Lives to be Lived

Description: This presentation will highlight two significant projects from Vietnam’s Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children: 1) The Healing the Wounded Heart project, which creates jobs for young disabled artisans, most of whom are hearing-impaired, training them to make handicrafts from recycled materials and traditional textiles, and 2) The Organic Farm in Nam Dong, a mountainous district of Vietnam. The farm provides residence and job preparation for 20 young people ages 16 to 25 years, 50% of whom are ethnic minorities. On the farm, the young people can receive professional training appropriate to their needs.