2025 Conference Agenda

2025 NARRTC Conference and Business Meeting: Minding our Methods, Enhancing Community, Health, and Employment Outcomes with People with Disabilities

Please note: This is a draft agenda and may change as speakers confirm their participation.

Tuesday, April 22nd
Time/Track Location/Event Details
8:00am – 4:00pm Virginia Hall
Registration
8:45am – 9:00am Mason Room
Welcome from NARRTC President Andre Washington

A Mindful Moment

Mindful Moment hosted by Ann Deschamps, Mid-Atlantic ADA Center
9:00am – 10:15am Mason Room

World Café on Knowledge Translation

Hosted by the Knowledge Translation Committee

BREAK

10:30am – 11:30am
Methods/Research Participation
Virginia Salon A

Panel

Beyond Consultation: Meaningful Collaboration with Young Adults with Lived Expertise

Moderator: Ann Deschamp, TransCen, Inc.
Employment Virginia Salon B

  1. Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Employment: Understanding Experiences of People with Disabilities Facing Multiple Barriers
  2. Mapping Culture in Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation
  3. Job Crafting: A coaching-based intervention strategy to improve self-efficacy and task performance of workers with disabilities
Moderator: Wendy Strobel Gower
Cornell University
Health Virginia Salon C

  1. Intersectional Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity During Prenatal, Delivery, and Postpartum Periods Among Birthing People with Physical Disabilities in Massachusetts
  2. Pregnancy Intendedness Among Racial and Ethically Minoritized Women with Disabilities
  3. Does resilience mitigate the extent of prescription opioid use and misuse among people with chronic spinal cord injury?
Moderator: TBA
11:45am – 1:15pm Mason Room

Lunch & Business Meeting

Tribute to Mark Odum, NARRTC President and Executive Board Committee Reports, and Call for Nominations

Moderator: Andre Washington, NARRTC President

BREAK

 
1:30pm – 2:30pm
Methods
Virginia Salon A

  1. Learning Together: Co-Production of a Research Protocol on Oral Health for People with Mental Illness
  2. Improving Methods for Conducting Online Research with People with Cognitive Disabilities: Self-Advocate, Supporter, and Researcher Perspectives
  3. Limitations of the WG-SS: Missing Severe Disabilities, Perpetuating Serious Gaps
Moderator: TBA
Community Participation Virginia Salon B

  1. Beyond Individual Adaptation: Examining Forced Resiliency as Structural Ableism in Healthcare and Community Spaces
  2. Barriers and Facilitators in Access to HCBS for People of Color
  3. Community Living Equity: How Are We Doing?
Moderator: Salimah LaForce, Georgia Institute of Technology
Employment Virginia Salon C

  1. Barriers to Employment: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act
  2. Work life expectancy among those with spinal cord dysfunction: Employment throughout the work lifecycle
  3. Making Flexible Work: Exploring the experiences of people with disabilities with flexible work arrangements through qualitative interviews
Moderator: Ann Deschamps, TransCen, Inc.
 

BREAK

 
2:45pm – 3:45pm
Community Participation
Virginia Salon A

Panel

Unmet Need for Personal Assistance Services

Moderator: TBA
Employment Virginia Salon B

Panel

Neuroinclusive Employment Practices: AI promises and perils

Moderator: TBA
Technology Virginia Salon C

  1. Building Science for All: Teaming with Blind and Low Vision Researchers in STEM
  1. Generative AI in Research: Supporting Neurodivergent Participants
  1. How Does Legislation Address Assistive Technology? A Comparative Analysis of the Laws of Brazil and the United States Using Natural Language Processing
Moderator: Nathan Moon, Georgia Institute of Technology
 

BREAK

 
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Knowledge Translation & Capacity Building
Virginia Salon A

  1. Assessing VR Capacity to Engage in Evidence-based Decision-Making
  2. Advancing Consumer-Driven Knowledge Translation (KT): A Mixed Methods Study of KT Preferences among People with Disabilities
  3. Addressing Disability and ADA Knowledge Gaps in Healthcare Provider Training
Moderator: TBA
Mental Health Virginia Salon B

Panel

The Missing Link for Educational and Employment Success: The Role of Executive Functioning Skill Development in Young Adults with Mental Health Conditions

Moderator: TBA
Health Virginia Salon C

Panel

Measuring Ableism and Assessing Its Impact on Health, Healthcare, and Independent Living

Moderator: Ann Deschamps, TransCen, Inc.
 

BREAK

 
5:30pm – 7:30pm

Poster Reception with Snacks & Cash Bar

Mason Room & Virginia Hall

  1. Intersectional Identities and Health Equity: Regional Barriers to Accessing Healthcare
  2. The AggiePromise Project: Recruitment and Retention of Youth with Disabilities in Social Science Research
  3. Psychometric Properties of the Responding to Feedback Knowledge Inventory
  4. Exploring the Reentry Experiences of Black Returning Citizens with Disabilities: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
  5. Supporting Parents of Young Children with Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Disabilities
  6. WAVE Program: Wellness Action Via Engagement for Older Family Caregivers
  7. Deconstructing Mental Illness Self-Stigma: Key Stages That Shape Treatment Attitudes, Recovery, and Self-Determination
  8. Adolescents with Lupus: Connecting Experiences and Perspectives
  9. Investigating the relationship of mattering and quality of social networks among individuals with serious mental illness
  10. Promoting Young Adult Success in Work and School: Free, Online Training for Providers
  11. Family Support Research & Training Center to Bridge Aging and Disabilities
  12. ADA National Network, Spanish Language Outreach Project: Training Materials and Outreach for ADA Awareness in Spanish-Speaking Communities
  13. Eradicating the Myths, Elevating the Voices: Inclusive Research Practices for Impactful Outcomes
  14. Psychosocial and Vocational Rehabilitation Engagement Among Young Adults with Disability
  15. Strive to Thrive: Supporting Families across the Aging and Disability Networks
  16. The Moderating Effects of Transportation Access on Self-Rated Health and Social Connectedness for People with Disabilities
  17. Community Mobility Skills and Decision-Making Insights from Individuals with IDD, Caregivers, and Professionals
  18. Acceptability of the SAFE Program: Perspectives of Teachers and Students with IDD
  19. The Role of Community Providers in the Employment of Transition Age Youth with Disabilities: A Scoping Review
  20. Expanding the Dignity of Risk for College Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Collaborative Approach
  21. Shifts in ADA technical assistance requests from people with disabilities, 2018 to 2023
Student posters eligible for the Best Poster Competition will be judged during the reception. Winners will be announced during the Awards Ceremony.

 

Wednesday, April 23rd
Time/Track Location/Event Details
8:00am – 10:00am Virginia Hall

Registration

8:45am – 10:00am Mason Room

Keynote Panel

The Disability-Specific Threat of AI, Bots, and Other Bad Actors: Balancing Fraud Prevention and Accessibility

Moderator: Kelsey S. Goddard, Kentucky University

Panelists: Jonathan Lazar, University of Maryland
Mandi Pratt-Chapman, George Mason University
Joey Shearer, Qualtrics

BREAK

 
10:15am – 11:15am
Methods
Virginia Salon A

Panel

Innovative Methods for the Inclusion of Latinx Communities in Disability Research

Moderator: Kelsey S. Goddard, Kentucky University
Employment & Mental Health Virginia Salon B

Panel

Breaking Barriers to Employment: Innovations in Research, Training, and Collaboration for Psychiatric Disabilities

Moderator: Salimah LaForce, Georgia Institute of Technology
Knowledge Translation & Capacity Building Virginia Salon C

  1. Promoting Young Adult Success in Work and School: Free, Online Training for Providers
  1. Microlearning as a Method to Bridge the Knowledge-to-Community Gap: Enhancing Accessibility and Deliverability of Evidence-Based Practice
  1. A social media vignette: Use of a mini-campaign to reveal a need for social media accessibility education
Moderator: Wendy Strobel Gower, Cornell University
 

BREAK

 
11:30am – 12:30pm

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Virginia Salon A

Quiet Room

If you need a quiet place, please use this space.
Community Participation  Virginia Salon B

 Panel

I Do Not Want Your Cookies Anymore: Three Phase Study on Engagement of individual with Disabilities in Advisory Committees to improve community accessibility

Moderator: TBA
Employment & Technology Virginia Salon C

Panel

Neuroinclusive Employment Practices: AI promises and perils

Moderator: Nathan Moon, Georgia Institute of Technology
12:30pm – 1:30pm Mason Room

Lunch & Awards

Moderator: Robin Jones

Awards for Best Paper, Best Student Poster, and NARRTC Recognitions will be presented.

BREAK

 
1:45pm – 2:45pm

Mental Health

Virginia Salon A

  1. Up To Me: Challenging Internalized Stigma Among College Students with Mental Illnesses to Enhance Community Participation and Inclusion
  1. Does mattering mediate the relationship between social exclusion and loneliness among adults with serious mental illness?
  1. Longitudinal trajectories of maternal stress for mothers with intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning

Moderator: Kelsey S. Goddard, Kentucky University
Research Participants Virginia Salon B

Panel

Minding our Methods: Building an Omnibus Survey on Employment

Moderator: Salimah LaForce, Georgia Institute of Technology
2025 Best Papers Virginia Salon C

  1. Long COVID Among People with Preexisting Disabilities
  1. Examining Use of Pharmacotherapy for Behavioral Support Among Americans with IDD Using Machine Learning
  1. Outcomes of Person-Centered Planning in Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services
Moderator: Sarah von Schrader, Cornell University
3:00pm – 4:00pm Mason Room

NIDILRR Updates

Moderator: Andre Washington

Panelists from NIDILRR have been invited to participate

Conference Concludes