Virtual Workshops

8:00 am Pacific time

Manage Your Mind: Building Executive Function Skills to Help you Manage at Work and Home

Presented by Sarah Kesty, Executive Function Podcast

Executive Function skills are a broad, interconnected network of skills we use to positively impact our futures, like organizing, planning, and emotional regulation. They are nuanced, layered, and often areas of need for individuals with disabilities. They are also in high demand by employers! Join executive function coach and educator, Sarah Kesty, in exploring strategies to learn—and use—the executive functions that will help you or your loved one live and work more efficiently and with less stress. Learn things like: how to backwards plan so you're never late; how to use prompting systems to keep track of appointments and medications; strategies for memorizing multi-step procedures on the job.

10:00 am Pacific time

Accessible Home Design: Ramps, Lifts and Elevators

Presented by Mark Thompson, PVA

Design ideas, parameters and issues related to installing ramps, and lifts inside and outside of your home and elevators within your home. Q&A to follow!

12:30 pm Pacific time

Cory Lee's Top 10 Tips for Thriving with a Disability: With Q&A

Presented by Cory Lee, Curb Free with Cory Lee

Sponsored by Sunrise Medical

World traveler and award winning blogger, Cory Lee, has been feeding his insatiable desire to explore and experience life to the fullest since he first sat behind the joystick of a power wheelchair at the age of four. Throughout his journey various unexpected obstacles have popped up requiring him to alter his route including physical barriers, other's perceptions, and, most recently, a global pandemic.

During this workshop Cory Lee will engage in a candid conversation with one of his clinician friends, Angie Kiger, about what he believes have been his keys to success for thriving with a disability. As the facilitator of the interview, Angie will not only ensure Cory shares practical tips, but also some tidbits he's never disclosed before. Regardless if you are living with a disability or have a friend with a disability, this entertaining workshop will be sure to enlighten you in addition to causing some laughs.

8:00 am Pacific time

Service Dog Workshop: Tools with Benefits

Presented by Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids

Service Dogs are long standing tools for independence. The many ways they can be trained to help a person overcome limitations caused by a variety of disabilities is amazing and not helps the individual to be more independent and actively participants in their communities. The trained skills help reduce risk of injury from a fall due to a seizure. They can help a teenager manage their diabetes and miss less class time for testing. They can help a lawyer with MS to carry needed documents removing the need for an extra person to attend court or mitigation. They can guide a visually impaired student through high school or alert a hearing-impaired individual to someone calling their name. Autism, PTSD, physical, psychological—service dogs are trained to help adults and children with ever expanding trained skills. The independence gained by the individual when service dogs help them to participate in mainstream activities greatly reduces the gulf between can and cannot.

This workshop will provide information about what the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) says about service dogs and will share examples of many of the specific skills being trained today.

Service dogs are key to removing limitations and increasing independence for many people living with disabilities. Come see these examples of what service dogs can be trained to do. It is time to think about these amazing tools: tools with the added benefits of love and companionship.

9:00 am Pacific time

Top Ten Tips & Tricks for a Successful Fundraiser

Presented by Sonny Mullen, Help Hope Live

Help Hope Live is here to share their fundraising expertise by providing you with their top ten tips and tricks for a successful fundraiser. Follow these tips and start fundraising today for anything you might see here at the Abilities Virtual Experience.

10:00 am Pacific time

Table Grilling For All!

Presented by Christi Hoehn, Home chef, and Camille Mahlknecht, Angel City Sports

I'll show you how to turn an ordinary griddle into a fun, healthy, accessible way to cook at the table. It's perfect to enjoy food with family and friends or simply to prepare food at a safe height if you don't have a modified kitchen. It's perfect for families with children who want to be part of the cooking process!

12:30 pm Pacific time

Achieving a Better Life Experience with ABLE Accounts

Presented by Miranda Kennedy, ABLE National Resource Center

The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act builds on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), recognizing the extra, significant costs that come with living with a disability, for example affording assistive technology. ABLE accounts are tax-advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities that empower people to save and invest their funds in a tax-advantaged savings vehicle to cover a wide range of qualified disability expenses, providing for a better future and enhanced quality of life.

The IRS issued final ABLE regulations on November 19, 2020, introducing new policies and features for ABLE accounts. This session will share who is ABLE eligible, how to open an account, and how to maximize savings and investments. ABLE account funds can support people with disabilities in achieving increased levels of health, independence and quality of life. Learn how ABLE tax advantaged accounts can improve financial well-being through asset development and allows people to pursue and attain their life goals while maintaining means tested benefits, transitioning off means tested benefits, and living independently.