KY/TN/WV Chapter Meeting April 29, 2026 8:45 AM - 1:30 PM ET | Live-Virtual, Online | 4 ADED Contact Hours | Members $40 / Non-Members $80
All attendees will need to have their cameras ON for the duration of the event for attendance verification.
Deadline to register: April 28, 2026 10 AM ET

Schedule
8:45 – 9:00 am: Business meeting: ADED Conference dates, any new business, review agenda 
9:00 - 10:00 am: Driver Rehab and Patients with Autism
10:00 – 11:00 am: Neuropathy & Fitness-to-Drive
11:15 am – 1:15 pm: Addressing the Transportation Needs of Young, Novice Students with Central Vision Loss Who Want to Explore Driving
1:15 – 1:30 pm: Close Meeting

Driver Rehab and Patients with Autism. Presenter: Suzanne Farnan-Maddux, OTR/L, CDRS

This session discusses specialized approaches for driver evaluations, training and education for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This is information on ASD and Neurodiversity, research insights, theoretical building blocks, assessing the potential to drive, and behind-the-wheel practical strategies.   

Learning Objectives:

• To provide a summary of research education strategies and assessments for clients with ASD.
• To identify comorbidities that can also affect a client with ASD as they begin the evaluation training process.
• To give examples of training skill for operational, tactical and strategic driving behaviors.

Neuropathy & Fitness-to-Drive. Presenter: Christy S. Horner, OTR/L, CDRS 

Neuropathy is a prevalent and often progressive condition that can significantly affect driving safety through sensory loss, motor weakness, impaired proprioception, and delayed reaction time. These impairments may compromise critical driving tasks such as pedal control, speed regulation, and timely response to roadway hazards risk (Perazzolo et al., 2019). Driver Rehabilitation Specialists are uniquely positioned to assess fitness-to-drive and support safe, client-centered mobility decision-making with individuals with neuropathy. This presentation will examine how different types of neuropathy impact driver safety and highlight signs of increased risk, Consistent with national medical fitness-to-drive guidance emphasizing functional assessment over diagnosis alone, participants will review evidence-based clinical and road evaluation strategies relevant to drivers with neuropathy (Staplin et al., 2016). Case-based examples will guide clinical reasoning regarding fitness-to-drive, use of adaptive equipment, driving restrictions, or driving cessation. Ethical and legal considerations related to driving recommendations with individuals with neuropathy will be discussed, along with practical strategies for counseling clients and families about driving risk and transition planning. Emphasis will be placed on applying assessment findings to real-world decision-making within the DRS scope of practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how sensory, motor, and autonomic neuropathies affect driving tasks, such as controlling the pedals, reaction speed, and maintaining proper lane position.
• Identify clinical red flags and functional indicators that warrant a comprehensive driving evaluation.
• Utilize evidence-based guidelines to select and interpret clinical and road assessment tools for drivers with neuropathy.
• Determine when compensatory strategies, adaptive equipment, or vehicle modifications may support continued safe driving.
• Apply clinical reasoning to distinguish between drive with modifications, restrict, or recommend cessation, using case-based examples.
• Use effective counseling strategies for clients and families about driving risks, safety, and transition planning.

Addressing the Transportation Needs of Young, Novice Students with Central Vision Loss Who Want to Explore Driving. Presenter: Chuck Huss, COMS, Driver Rehabilitation Specialist 

This presentation will provide updates re the status, number of ADED in-car service providers, and proposed methods of service delivery re adaptive driving services (including a sampling of covered skill areas) for young (high school age), novice bioptic driving candidates in the United States. It will also shed light on how some states and consumer organizations are doing their part in addressing the unmet transportation needs of such students with visual impairments via related conferences, workshops and webinars. And lastly it will summarize preliminary feedback received to date, after dissemination of an adaptive driving services survey questionnaire and related e-mail correspondence, from a sampling of school administrators and/or assigned staff/consultants of select schools for the blind re proposed pre-driver readiness training and a full gamut of adaptive driving services.

Learning Objectives:

• To obtain an up-to-date number of the states that currently allow or recognize the muse of prescription bioptic telescopic lens systems for driving.
• To obtain an up-to-date number and state location of ADED service providers for in-car bioptic driving services.
• Gain awareness of proposed methods of service delivery for both expanded pre-driver readiness as well as the full gamut of adaptive driving services for eligible school-age students with central vision impairments who want to explore driving.
• Shed light on what a sampling of states and consumer organizations are doing to assist in addressing the unmet transportation needs of young, novice (never been licensed) students who want to explore driving.   
• Provide an overview of the results of an informal survey questionnaire and related e-mail correspondence re the need or interest in formalized adaptive driving services at select residential schools for the blind and visually impaired in the United States.

Attendance at the entire event is required to earn contact hours, no partial hours are awarded. Registration confirmation and payment receipts are e-mailed to the attendee. All cancellations for live-virtual events must be made in writing to the ADED Executive Office by 3/29/2026; a 20% handling fee will be charged. Refunds will not be issued after this date or for “no-shows.” Partial refunds will not be granted. ADED reserves the right to modify content, timetable, change speakers, or cancel events due to unforeseen/unavoidable circumstances at any time. If ADED cancels an event, a full refund will be provided to registrants. ADED does not offer refunds because of technological issues, should the ADED experience a platform outage, attendees will be provided an appropriate credit.  All complaints relative to the content, instructor, and registration procedures are to be directed to the ADED executive office: 200 1st Ave NW #505 Hickory NC 28601 or via email eLearning@aded.net  

ADED's Education Code of Conduct applies to this and all ADED education.