2023 Virtual Mini-Conference

AHEAD Equity & Excellence Access in Higher Education

AHEAD Virtual Mini-Conference

August 1-3, 2023


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Quick Links

 

AHEAD understands that not everyone will be able to join us in Portland this year for the 2023 Equity & Excellence Conference, therefore, AHEAD is excited to offer a virtual conference option on Tuesday-Thursday, August 1-3rd, 2023. 

The three-day Virtual Mini-Conference will highlight select content from the Portland conference and will include a recording of the keynote presentation that you can watch on-demand on your own. It will include 25 live presentations in Zoom, designed specifically for an enhanced virtual experience. We want to ensure there is something for everyone, so the concurrent sessions selected for the virtual mini-conference will include content relevant to all stages of a disability professional’s journey. Content will range from legal frameworks and the nitty-gritty of accommodation decision-making to campus-wide alliances and diversity, equity, and inclusion work. 

Most sessions of the virtual program will be recorded so that you can join live or catch up on presentations via recording whenever it’s convenient. CRCC and RID CEUs will be preapproved for both conferences, and certificates of attendance for other types of CEUs are available.

For those already registered for Portland, but also interested in catching additional sessions you couldn’t attend there, registration for the in-person Portland conference includes automatic free registration for the Virtual Mini-Conference! 


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Schedule (All times Eastern time zone)

Tuesday, August 1

Noon – 1:30 Block V1 (2 concurrent sessions)

  • V1.1: OCR Year in Review
  • V1.2: Disability Culture, Campus Alliances, and the Role of Disability Services: Insights from the Creation of Three Disability Affinity Groups

1:30 – 2:00 Break

2:00 – 3:00 Block V2 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V2.1: Onboarding for Excellence: Creatively Recruiting and Training New Disability Office Staff
  • V2.2: Determining Clinical Accommodations, Advocating for Inclusive Technical Standards, and Managing Third Party Relationships: The Health Science Disability Provider's Survival Guide
  • V2.3: Disability IS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Repositioning and Strengthening the Work

3:00 – 3:30 Break

3:30 – 5:00 Block V3 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V3.1: Disrupting Ableism by Engaging Student Affairs Staff in Division- Wide Disability Justice & Access Education
  • V3.2: The Disabled Perspective: Through The Eyes Of Disabled Disability Services Practitioners
  • V3.3: Navigating the Grievance and Complaint Process

Wednesday, August 2

Noon – 1:30 Block V4 (2 concurrent sessions)

  • V4.1: Legal Year in Review
  • V4.2: Guiding the Office - Different Approaches to Leadership: a Panel Discussion and Networking Opportunity

1:30 – 2:00 Break

2:00 – 3:00 Block V5 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V5.1: Is That a Reasonable Accommodation? Understanding the Effects of Technical Standards and Essential Elements (and How to Support Faculty to Establish Them)
  • V5.2: Housing Accommodation Challenges and Decisions
  • V5.3: Let’s Prevent the Fire Instead of Putting it Out:  Preventing Burnout in Higher Education

3:00 – 3:30 Break

3:30 – 5:00 Block V6 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V6.1: Clinicals, Practica, Placements, Student Teaching, and Other Off-Campus Learning Experiences: Accommodations, Policy, and Practice
  • V6.2: Disability Orientation Programming: Easing the Transition to College for First-Year Students with Disabilities and their Families
  • V6.3: Starting from Scratch: Disability Services at a Small College

Thursday, August 3

Noon – 1:30 Block V7 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V7.1: “I’m a Team of One”: How to Advocate for DSS and Disability Resources as an Office of One
  • V7.2: Decentering Whiteness in Disability Services: An Intersectional Approach to the Work We Do
  • V7.3: Developing and Implementing an Information and Communication Technology Accessibility Policy in Higher Education

1:30 – 2:00 Break

2:00 – 3:00 Block V8 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V8.1: The Impact of “Stress Culture” on Students’ Mental Health and How We Can Address It
  • V8.2:  Denied: Navigating Difficult Decisions and Telling Students "No" Within the Social Model
  • V8.3: Taming the Beast: Managing Flexibility with Attendance, Tardiness, and Deadline Accommodations

3:00 – 3:30 Break

3:30 – 5:00 Block V9 (3 concurrent sessions)

  • V9.1: Student Evaluations of Disability Resource Office Staff and Operations: Gathering Data to Improve Effectiveness
  • V9.2: Promoting Full Participation: Remote Access as a Key to Retention
  • V9.3: Meeting Disabled Student Veterans Where They Are: A Collaborative Campus 


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Registration

All registrants for the in-person  Portland conference will receive automatic, free registration for the virtual conference. Connection information will be sent the week before the virtual conference.

Members Pricing

  • Register for all three days: $349.00
  • One day registration: $179.00

Non-Members Pricing

  • Register for all three days: $499.00
  • One day registration: $249.00

Discount code to receive the member rate: AHEAD Members Discount Codes (member sign-in only)

Each registration supports a single connection.

There is a 10% discount on registration of 10 or more people from the same institution.

Links to recordings cannot be shared. To receive access to the recordings, you must be registered for the virtual conference.

No refunds are available because recordings of most sessions will be available to all registrants to watch at their convenience.


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Technology & Accessibility

Technology:

  • All conference sessions will be hosted in Zoom. All conference participants should download the most recent version of Zoom prior to the conference start date.
  • AHEAD is pleased to offer an enhanced virtual conference experience via the conferencing software, CVent Attendee Hub. Information about logging in will be sent to all registrants prior to the virtual conference.

Access:

  • All presentations and meetings will include captioning and ASL interpreting.
  • All slides and other presentation materials will be posted to the CVent registration system prior to the virtual conference.
  •  For any other accommodation requests, please email profdev@ahead.org.


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