Each year, the TASH Conference brings together a diverse community of stakeholders who gain information, learn about resources, and connect with others across the country to strengthen the disability field. This year’s conference theme, “Be Creative - Innovative Solutions for an Inclusive Life,” reminds us to think outside the box during times of uncertainty. Creativity, innovation, and determination can pave the way for meaningful and inclusive lives for people with disabilities.
This study explores how multimodal, student-designed narratives in the individualized education plan (IEP) meeting, implemented using a pedagogy of multiliteracies, can simultaneously engage and empower youth with complex support needs. The study suggests that the multiliteracies framework created an environment conducive to dialogic teaching, which led to student-engagement, student-initiation, and joy of learning. These changes were responsible for the new empowering learning spaces in problem-solving, complexity in use of tools and language, and self-knowledge. Further, it enabled the repositioning of the deficit identity of the students to one of competence.
