RE:CON 2026
PRESENTATIONS
Sessions for this year’s re:con
Beyond Burnout: Sustaining Engagement in Vocational Rehabilitation Teams
PRESENTED BY: Rene Dell
Vocational rehabilitation team members carry some of the heaviest caseloads in the human services field — balancing complex client needs, documentation demands, and systemic pressures, often with limited time for the relational work that drew them to the profession in the first place. The result is chronic burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a shrinking sense of impact. This session moves past awareness of burnout and into practical strategy. Participants will explore the specific drivers of burnout in VR settings (caseload size, administrative burden, secondary trauma, and outcome-metric pressure), examine what current research says about sustainable engagement in helping professions, and walk through concrete, low-cost strategies that supervisors and agencies can implement — from workload redesign to peer support structures to leadership practices that restore a sense of purpose. Attendees will leave with a personal action plan and a team-level discussion tool they can bring back to their own agency.
Bridging College Education and Employment Through Collaboration
PRESENTED BY: Liz Shawl, Brittany Hamilton-Reed
While transition services frequently focus on individuals in high school and adult transition initiatives, college students are often overlooked. However, higher education students remain eligible for Pre-ETS through BSBP and MRS. They need targeted skill cultivation to foster academic success and facilitate effective vocational rehabilitation case closure. Drawing on data from both higher education and vocational rehabilitation sectors, this presentation will examine the gap in skill development and strategies for engagement among college students. Additionally, presenters will highlight successful collaborative initiatives, such as disability-focused campus tours, the Eagle’s Work program, and a specialized work readiness curriculum centered on soft skills.
Bridging GAL and Vocational Rehabilitation Systems
PRESENTED BY: Melanie J. Poe, MA
Transition-age youth with disabilities involved in foster care and child welfare systems often navigate multiple services simultaneously, yet the professionals supporting them may have limited knowledge of one another’s roles, responsibilities, and resources. Guardians ad Litem (GALs) can play an important role in identifying disability-related needs and advocating for services, while Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) can provide critical supports related to education, employment, independent living, and successful transition to adulthood.
This advanced, practice-focused presentation examines opportunities for stronger collaboration between GALs, VR professionals, educators, attorneys, caregivers, and other members of the transition team. Participants will explore common gaps in cross-system communication, appropriate referral points, professional roles and boundaries, and strategies for connecting eligible youth with VR services earlier in the transition process. Through practical examples and case-based discussion, attendees will leave with strategies for strengthening coordination and improving transition planning for youth with disabilities involved in child welfare systems.
Building Resilience
PRESENTED BY: Yarden Blumstein
Resilience is a set of skills that can be developed and strengthened over time. This interactive presentation explores practical strategies for building resilience in the face of adversity, stress, and change. Participants will learn how mindset, emotional regulation, healthy relationships, and purposeful action contribute to long-term well-being. Through evidence-informed concepts attendees will leave with actionable tools to navigate challenges and foster resilience in both their personal and professional lives.
Designing for Everyone: Digital Accessibility for Websites, Documents, Social Media, and Video
PRESENTED BY: Amy Maes, CPAAC
Digital accessibility is often treated as a website problem handed to the IT department. It isn’t. Every PDF posted to a public page, every social media graphic, every recorded meeting, and every slide deck shared afterward is digital content — and each one can quietly exclude people.
In April 2026, the Department of Justice extended Title II compliance deadlines by one year without changing a single requirement. This session covers what digital accessibility actually spans, where the law now stands, and how organizations can use the extension as momentum rather than delay.
MiABLE 101- Saving without Sacrifice
PRESENTED BY: Scott de Varona
Financial security shouldn’t come at the cost of essential benefits — and with MiABLE, it doesn’t have to! Join MiABLE Program Director Scott de Varona for a deeper dive into how MiABLE accounts empower people with disabilities to save money while preserving critical benefits like SSI and Medicaid. MiABLE is a vital financial resource designed for individuals with disabilities, who have historically faced barriers to saving money. Learn how MiABLE works, who qualifies and how you can help your clients take advantage of this game-changing program. With real-life success stories, discussions and a Q&A, you’ll be equipped to further advocate for financial independence within the disability community! Help those you serve achieve financial success — without sacrifice.
Performance Evaluation and Ethical Considerations: Employment of Persons with Disabilities
PRESENTED BY: Andrew Nay
Employees with disabilities receive performance ratings comparable to their peers, yet employers consistently show bias in judging future job-fit — a gap with direct consequences for career advancement. This session examines how performance evaluation can be made both rigorous and ethically sound, drawing on the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act and the EU’s Employment Equality Directive. It is organized around three principles: equal standards with equitable paths, in which accommodations adjust how work is done rather than the standard itself; disability awareness as an affirmative employer duty requiring individualized rather than blanket responses; and leadership through transparent, standardized, evidence-based evaluation. Production and non-production work environments are contrasted to show where consistent quantitative criteria apply and where adaptive measures are warranted. Practical guidance addresses employee agency over disclosure, paternalistic bias in supervision, and the low cost of accommodation. Ethical evaluation is defined as much by process as by outcomes.
Tech & Tranquility: AT for Mental Health and Self Care
PRESENTED BY: Aimee Sterk, LMSW
Many individuals associate Assistive Technology (AT) solely with physical or sensory disabilities, overlooking its vast potential in supporting mental health, substance use and neurodiversity. In this interactive workshop, we invite you to explore the wide array of high and low-tech apps and devices tailored to enhance mental health and substance use management across all age groups.
From aiding executive functioning to managing stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and fostering organization and communication skills, AT offers invaluable resources. Join us as we delve into the diverse landscape of AT solutions, encompassing task reminders, mental health supports, time management, and neurodiversity support.
The Serious Business of Play
PRESENTED BY: Melissa Kaekel LPC LMHC
Many adults quietly abandon play as responsibilities increase, despite growing evidence linking play, curiosity, creativity, and leisure participation to resilience, emotional wellbeing, cognitive flexibility, and recovery. Rehabilitation professionals are uniquely positioned to help clients reconnect with joy, exploration, hobbies, social connection, and meaningful activity. This interactive presentation explores the role of play in adult mental health and rehabilitation and provides practical interventions that clinicians can immediately incorporate into practice.
Transition Through to Employment
PRESENTED BY: Dr. Lynn Boza
Accommodations used in school through to employment will be identified, presented and discussed using case studies and interactive input from the audience.
Learning Objective 1: As a result of participation in this workshop, audience will be able to define the terms “accommodation” and “transition” used when providing services to individuals with disabilities.
Learning Objective 2: Using two samples, audience will identify typical accommodations for individuals with specific physical and learning disabilities.
Learning Objective 3: Using specific disabilities of “expressive and receptive language disorder” and “rheumatoid arthritis”, audience will engage in an interactive problem-solving session, in which they recommend specific accommodations for each individual. Final actual employment outcome and evolving need for accommodations for the latter individual will be presented.
Understanding and Applying Resilience
PRESENTED BY: Yarden Blumstein
Resilience is not about avoiding adversity, rather it’s about developing the capacity to adapt, recover, and grow through life’s challenges. This interactive presentation explores the science of resilience and provides practical, evidence-informed strategies that participants can immediately apply in their personal and professional lives. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence resilience, including mindset, emotional regulation, supportive relationships, and purpose. Through discussion and real-world examples, participants will learn how to strengthen their own resilience while fostering it in others. The session is designed to leave attendees with actionable tools to better navigate stress, setbacks, and change with confidence and hope.
WorkChat: A Virtual Workplace Conversation Simulation for Transition
PRESENTED BY: Matthew J. Smith, PhD, LCSW
Autistic transition age youth frequently receive pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS), but still face barriers to getting and keeping jobs. Conversational skills, social anxiety, and emotion regulation are known factors that influence job stability among autistic transition-age youth; however, the field lacks evidence-based practices to support growth and development in these areas. To address this gap in services, our team partnered with the autism community, Pre-ETS experts, and SIMmersion LLC to develop WorkChat, a commercially available web-based simulator to practice talking with virtual customers, coworkers, and supervisors. WorkChat offers trainees the opportunity to repeatedly practice talking with virtual customers, coworkers, and supervisors whose personalities range from friendly to sassy to disgruntled. Trainees receive automated feedback through color-coded transcripts and performance assessments that can be reviewed independently or with their transition specialist. Our randomized study evaluated WorkChat when delivered by Michigan Career and Technical Institute and two Michigan Disability Networks for autistic transition-age youth. The study results suggest that autistic youth engaged in Pre-ETS with WorkChat improved their ability to manage emotions, social anxiety, and their conversational skills with customers, coworkers, and supervisors; while employed WorkChat users were found to work more hours and earn more money within the same job by the end of the study–when compared to a Pre-ETS as usual control group. This presentation will share study results, provide a brief demo of WorkChat, and initial implementation outcomes (i.e., what did staff and youth think of WorkChat, helpful implementation tips to overcome observed challenges with delivery). A four minute demo of WorkChat is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htvnBO2eIhg. WorkChat is a commercial product licensed by SIMmersion LLC, due to his role as an inventor of WorkChat, Dr. Smith anticipates receiving royalties on WorkChat revenue in the future.
