Thirteenth Annual Association of Travel Instruction Conference to be Held in Chicago

August 14, 2013

Who: The Travel Training staff of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is serving as the local host of the thirteenth annual Association of Travel Instruction (ATI) Conference. ATI is the national Travel Training professional organization. Its mission is to support providers of travel instruction for the purpose of teaching people with disabilities and seniors to travel safely and independently. For more information about ATI visit http://travelinstruction.org/index.html.

What: This year's conference theme is "Paving the Way to Community Involvement."  

Where: The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn-Mart Plaza, 350 Mart Center Drive, 15thFloor, Chicago.  

When: Thursday, August 15 through Sunday, August 18, 2013. Please contact Susan Massel at the RTA for information about media attendance. The conference is not open to the public.

Why: Two RTA Travel Training staff will make presentations at the conference.

• Thursday, August 15, 2:00-4:00: Michael VanDekreke, RTA Manager, Accessibility, and staff from Easter Seals Project ACTION (ESPA) will present a travel training curriculum that was developed, as part of an ESPA funded project, to help school districts across the country integrate travel training on public transportation into their educational activities for youth with disabilities. This curriculum was developed through collaboration of RTA, ESPA and Chicago Public Schools. The curriculum is available for download at http://www.projectaction.org/Initiatives/YouthTransportation/TransportationEducationCurriculum.aspx.

• Friday, August 16, 10:15-11:00: Kristen Salkas, RTA Mobility Services Outreach Specialist, will make a presentation called Ideologies of Disability in Travel Training Practice. This presentation will help Travel Trainers examine their ideological perspectives on disabilities in order to improve their practice of travel instruction.