Artificial Intelligence (AI) is constantly evolving technology, which is commonly used in the workplace. Employers utilize AI for a growing number of functions. Employees with disabilities can utilize AI as a reasonable accommodation to assist in completing required job tasks. However, inaccessible AI programs can also pose barriers for employees with disabilities.
This session will provide information about some of the uses of AI to assist employees with disabilities in the workplace, and barriers that AI may pose to applicants and employees with disabilities. This session will also provide information about the rights of employees with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act to request and receive reasonable accommodations in the workplace. Additionally, this session will explore some recent developments around AI in the workplace.
Learning Outcomes
- The various forms of AI that are used by employers and employees in the workplace, and potential barriers posed by AI to employees with disabilities.
- The rights of employees with disabilities to request and receive reasonable accommodations, and some examples of AI as a reasonable accommodation.
- How AI can be used to assist people with disabilities to prepare for employment.
- Recent developments within the past year of AI in the workplace.
Professionals who support people with disabilities regularly navigate complex questions about assistance, accommodation, and independence: When does support enable participation, and when does it risk replacing skill or judgment? Generative AI introduces similar tensions into professional practice, documentation, training, and evaluation. This interactive session invites participants to examine how emerging AI tools intersect with long-standing principles of accessibility, support, and human judgment. Rather than focusing on specific technologies, the session centers on design questions: what counts as meaningful competence, how professional reasoning can be made visible, and how supports can be structured ethically and transparently. Participants will engage in guided reflection and redesign activities applicable to training, assessment, and service contexts, leaving with practical frameworks for integrating AI in ways that align with disability-centered values.
Learning Outcomes
- Participants will be able to identify parallels between traditional accommodation/support decisions and emerging questions about AI assistance, drawing on their existing expertise in disability services.
- Participants will apply at least two evidence-based design strategies (explain-the-decision, contextual constraints, or critique-the-support) to strengthen professional practices, training, or assessment in their own contexts.
- Participants will distinguish between AI uses that support professional judgment and those that risk obscuring reasoning, replacing skill development, or undermining disability-centered values such as self-determination and dignity of risk.
- Participants will leave with one concrete redesign of a practice, training activity, or assessment approach that makes human judgment visible while ethically integrating AI-based support tools.
People with disabilities often receive information about services, rights, and benefits in long, hard-to-understand documents. As advocates, we sometimes use technical or professional language, but this can make it difficult to connect with the disability community, their families, service providers, and allies.
Plain language resources make information accessible to everyone. When resources are clear, people can better advocate for themselves. This presentation highlights the importance of plain language and shows how it can educate, engage, and empower the people we care about.
Learning Outcomes
- Simplify complex language in community-facing documents and resources.
- Develop a clear, plain-language method that helps people with disabilities understand their rights.
- Explain the person-centered values behind creating plain language resources for everyone, with and without disabilities.
- Plain language principles benefit all audiences and content areas. This presentation highlights how plain language improves access to services and rights, empowers self-advocacy, bridges communication gaps, promotes person-centered values, and fosters engagement and education.
Ethical practice within the field of assistive technology continues to evolve and tested due to continued advancement of the solutions and strategies. As practitioners we have the opportunity and obligation to use an ethical lens in our work as we provide assistive technology services. Ethical guidance can direct how we inform those that we work with on the pros, cons, and in-betweens around AT, the internet, and AI. This session will use decision making models, the CRC Code of Ethics, the RESNA standards, and Wisconsin’s Best Practice guides to discuss AT service delivery. An active dialogue and case examples will be a key component of this session.
This session is based upon established ethical guidance and service delivery models published by CRCC, RESNA, and WisTech.
Learning Outcomes
- Participants will be able to list three ethical best considerations regarding artificial intelligence.
- Participants will be able to list three ethical decision-making models as they apply to AT, the internet, and AI.
- Participants will apply AT and AI service provision as it relates to the CRC Code of Ethics.
Feeling overwhelmed by lesson planning that checks all the boxes—state standards, UDL principles, and individual student needs? You’re not alone! This hands-on, beginner-friendly session is designed for educators who are new to using AI and want practical, easy-to-use tools they can apply right away. Participants will actively explore AI resources that support lesson planning, differentiation, and accessibility, with a focus on simple steps that save time and boost student engagement.
Learning Outcomes
- Use beginner-friendly AI tools to create standards-aligned lesson plans with guided support.
- Practice modifying and differentiating lesson content using AI to meet diverse learning needs.
- Create at least one AI-supported instructional resource they can use immediately in their classroom.
The West Virginia Assistive Technology System (WVATS), the state assistive technology program for West Virginia, works to increase access to assistive technology (AT) for individuals with disabilities across one of the most rural states in the nation. This presentation explores practical, collaborative strategies for identifying AT needs, strengthening service delivery and expanding access in rural communities through cross-region partnerships.
Participants will build foundational AT vocabulary and develop skills to recognize needs using culturally responsive, compassionate approaches. The session emphasizes unique barriers faced in rural areas, such as limited resources, geographic isolation, and service gaps, and how intentional collaboration can address these challenges. Successful partnerships among state agencies, universities, grassroots initiatives, and service providers will be highlighted, along with strategies for locating local AT resources and
Learning Outcomes
- Participants will develop foundational vocabulary, the ability to identify assistive technology needs, and culturally responsive compassion when working with rural populations.
- Participants will apply collaborative approaches among state agencies, universities, grass-root projects, and service providers to strengthen assistive technology services while maximizing resources.
- Participants will be able to locate assistive technology in their area and establish service delivery through donations and collaborations.
In today’s educational and workplace environments, literacy, access, and sensory support have become focal points for helping individuals. What are the best practices around how we can use both assistive technology and sensory supports in these and other environments? In this session, we are taking a look at the research and anecdotal evidence for devices which work well and how they can be incorporated in multiple environments. We will discuss how the devices we currently have can be used for the creation of inclusive environments. We will also investigate how certain assistive technology devices can be used in alternative manners to enhance any environment. Finally, we will also look to introduce sensory supports for multiple environments.
Learning Outcomes
- Participants will compare various types of assistive technology for reading support and determine which would work best for their individuals.
- Participants will differentiate how various types of assistive technology can be utilized by areas outside of the typical usage patterns in order to create more accessible environments.
- Participants will discuss the various tools and applications that they currently use and how those could be adapted into other settings or activities.
Preparing students with disabilities for life after high school takes early planning, practical experiences, and strong collaboration between schools, families, and community partners. This proposed session will provide an updated overview of Pre-Employment Transition (Pre-ETS), focusing on how students are connected to the program, the services they receive, and how those services support successful transitions into education, training, and employment. Participants will learn about referral pathways, what engagement in Pre-ETS looks like, and how workshops are used to help students explore careers and build workplace readiness skills. The presentation will also highlight what comes next after Pre-ETs and share examples of how early career development can open doors and create meaningful opportunities for student success.
Learning Outcomes
- Describe how Pre-ETS supports successful transition from high school to education, training, and employment.
- Identify effective strategies for connecting students to Pre-ETS and engaging them in services such as Work-Based Learning.
- Apply best practices discussed in the session to support early career development for students with disabilities.
- The Pre-ETS team may ask a student to speak at the conference to share their success story. We are looking into the best ways in which this can be done, the Pre-ETS team will follow-up once we have detailed information.
