112 students

To earn CEUs for this session, you must be present for the entire live event and discussion which will take place Tuesday, June 2 from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EDT. You must also complete the Knowledge Assessment.

A panel of individuals with physical and sensory disabilities who are parents will discuss their experiences, the challenges and rewards of parenthood, and how assistive technology and adaptations helped them raise their children. They will also talk about the harmful stereotypes and misconceptions still existing in the general population about parents with disabilities. The historical legal and policy obstacles created to prevent and discourage people with disabilities from becoming parents will be briefly covered as well.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Increase the understanding of the variety of perspectives of parenting with a disability.
  2. Identify the ways individuals with disabilities use assistive technology to help them with parenting.
  3. Identify the ways individuals adapt traditional parenting styles to accommodate their disability.

Some supplemental materials created by Sarah May and Dave Tucker

Instructor

  • Jason Jones is a disability specialist at the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky. He chiefly works on two projects at the Institute, KentuckyWorks and the Southeast ADA Technical Assistance Center. Formerly, he worked with the Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. He has a Bachelor degree in Journalism from Eastern Kentucky University. Jason has quadriplegia and is the father of two small sons.

  • Chastity Ross is a wife and working mother. She earned her Bachelor’s in Arts in Education from Eastern Kentucky University. After college, she began working as a case manager for children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. She has enjoyed working with this population for twenty years. Chastity has sat on many boards and councils that work hard in improving the life of Kentuckians with disabilities. Chastity has a son, 16 and a daughter, 12, and is happily married to her wife Millie.

  • Donna Fox is the Youth Services Coordinator at the Center for Accessible Living (CAL) in Louisville. She has been employed at CAL since 2012. Prior to working there, she was a special needs travel writer and travel counselor. She earned her Associate Degree in Human Services from the University of Kentucky and her Bachelor of Science in Sociology from the University of Louisville. She serves as vice-chair on the Metro Louisville Commission for Persons with Disabilities. Donna has had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since the age of four. Every joint has been affected by arthritis and she has had 12 replacement surgeries. Donna lives with a traumatic brain injury as a result of an accident and is also a cancer survivor. Donna is married and has two adult sons, ages 28 and 24, and three grandchildren.

  • Lee Gordon is the Transition Administrator for the Kentucky Office for Children with Special Healthcare Needs, OCSHCN. He has worked for the agency since June of 2000. He has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Eastern Kentucky University and a Bachelor of Health Science in Health Administration from the University of Kentucky. Prior to his employment with the OCSHCN, Lee was a nursing home administrator. Lee has quadriplegia as a result of a car accident that occurred when he was 18 years old. Lee and his wife have one daughter who will graduate high school in May 2020, and will attend Wake Forest University this fall where she will be a student athlete and play field hockey.

  • Sandra Williams has worked for the Kentucky Office for the Blind (now the Division of Blind Services in the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation) for 18 years. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Psychology and Counseling from the University of Louisville and a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Kentucky. In addition to having a disability herself, Sandra is the child of parents with disabilities and the adoptive mother of two children with significant disabilities.

Free