Agenda

Day 1

1:00–3:30 PM Eastern

Session A: Employment

1:15–2:10 PM Eastern

  • Region 2, Northeast ADA Center presents “How Flexibility Makes Work Work for People with Disabilities”
    • Presented by: LaWanda Cook, Senior Extension Associate at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University
    • Email: lhc62@cornell.edu
  • Region 4, Southeast ADA Center presents “Disability Employment Policy, Digital Access, and Economic Opportunity”
    • Presented by: Fitore Hyseni, Director of Research at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University and Research Assistant Professor at the College of Law
    • Email: fhyseni@syr.edu
  • Region 6, Southwest ADA Center presents “Use of Service Animals in Employment”
    • Presented by: Vinh Nguyen, Project Director of the Southwest ADA Center at TIRR Memorial Hermann and Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston Law Center
    • Email: vinh.nguyen2@memorialhermann.org
  • Kartik Trivedi presents “The AI (Dis)Advantage: How Hiring Professionals Choose AI Advice Over Human Judgment in Recruiting People with Disabilities”
    • Presented by: Dr. Kartik Trivedi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire
    • Email: Kartik.Trivedi@unh.edu
  • Moderator comments
  • Question and answer session
Break

Session B: Community living and participation

2:30–3:20 PM Eastern

  • Moderated by: Katherine Macfarlane, Professor of Law and Director, Disability Law and Policy Program, Syracuse University College of Law
  • Region 3, Mid-Atlantic ADA Center presents “Aging with and Into Disability: Navigating ADA Rights in Community and Work”
    • Presented by: Ellen S. Fabian, Ph.D., Professor Emerita and Research Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park
    • Email: efabian@umd.edu
  • ADA Knowledge Translation Center presents “Developing a Reasonable Accommodation Decision Aid”
    • Presented by: Mark Harniss, PhD, Professor in the University of Washington Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Co-Director of the ADA Knowledge Translation Center
    • Email: mharniss@uw.edu
  • Region 1, New England ADA Center presents “Effective Methods of Engaging with the Americans with Disabilities Act: Participatory Action Research Approach”
    • Presented by: Taciana Ribeiro Saab, Project Director, New England ADA Center (a project of the Institute for Human Centered Design)
    • Email: tribeirosaab@ihcdesign.org
  • Casey Herman presents “How do communities implement health solutions? Findings from a multi-state evaluation”
    • Presented by: Dr. Casey Herman, Senior Research Specialist in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois Chicago
    • Email: cherma5@uic.edu
  • Moderator comments
  • Question and answer session

Day 2

1:00–3:30 PM Eastern

Session A: Health and society

1:15–2:10 PM Eastern

  • Moderated by: Kara Ayers, PhD, Associate Professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
  • Region 7, Great Plains ADA Center presents “Improving accessibility of hospital facilities using immerging computational methods”
    • Presented by: Jong Bum Kim, Ph.D., Associate Professor, iLab Director, Department of Architectural Studies at University of Missouri Columbia
    • Email: kimjongb@missouri.edu
  • Region 9, Pacific ADA Center presents “Access to Quality Health Services under the ADA”
    • Presented by: Rosielyn Babauta, DNP, MS, RN-BNCP, Assistant Professor at University of Guam
    • Email: rbabauta@triton.uog.edu
  • ADA PARC presents “Findings from ADA PARC: Using Scorecards to Compare States on Participation Opportunities”
    • Presented by: Joy Hammel, PhD, OTR/L, Co-PI of the Americans with Disabilities Act Participation Action Research Consortium with Dr. Lex Frieden; Professor in Departments of Occupational Therapy & Disability and Human Development at University of Illinois at Chicago
    • Email: hammel@uic.edu
  • Sumithra Murthy presents “Family Support Research and Training Center”
    • Presented by: Dr. Sumithra Murthy, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago
    • Email: smurthy@uic.edu
  • Moderator comments
  • Question and answer session
Break

Session B: Community needs and access

2:30–3:20 PM Eastern

  • Moderated by: Heather Ansley, MSW, Chief Policy Officer, Paralyzed Veterans of America
  • Region 8, Rocky Mountain ADA Center presents “Current Needs of ADA Coordinators Among Title II Entities”
    • Presented by: Jill Bezyak, PhD, Principal Investigator of the Rocky Mountain ADA Center and Professor and Program Coordinator in Rehabilitation Counseling and Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado
    • Email: jill.bezyak@unco.edu
  • Region 10, Northwest ADA Center presents “Access to Justice: A Review of ADA Notice Requirement on State Court Websites”
    • Presented by: Heather Evans, PhD, Research Director of NW ADA Center and Assistant Professor at the University of Washington
    • Email: hdevans@uw.edu
  • Region 5, Great Lakes ADA Center presents “Accessible Cities 4 All: Where are we?”
    • Presented by: Yochai Eisenberg, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago
    • Email: yeisen2@uic.edu
  • Kara Mannor presents “The built environment, social connection, and ways of knowing in disabled peoples’ campaigns for accessibility in Chicago”
    • Presented by: Kara Mannor, Rackham Merit Fellow and doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health
    • Email: kmannor@umich.edu
  • Moderator comments
  • Question and answer session

About the 2026 ADA State of the Science Research Conference

The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in many areas of public life. The ADA National Network and others do research on important topics related to the ADA, exploring many aspects of the ADA to learn more about how the ADA works in practice and to improve understanding of stakeholders’ needs. The ADA State of the Science Research Conference is one way to learn about these research findings.

The free ADA State of the Science Research Conference will be held online on and from 1:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern each day. The conference will consist of short “lightning talk” style presentations from ADA researchers from the ADA National Network and other organizations.

Session themes

Who should attend

This conference is designed for anyone who wants to learn more about the latest ADA research for personal or professional reasons. This includes people with rights under the law, like people with disabilities and their family members, as well as those with responsibilities under the ADA. Examples of who may be interested in attending include:

Access

The conference will include captions, ASL interpretation, and CART.

Information from the previous ADA State of the Science Conferences is also available: adata.org/sos

The conference is coordinated by the ADA Knowledge Translation Center with support from the ADA National Network Research Committee, and funded through the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).