Pathways Volume 16 I September 2024

10th Annual Creating Your Own Path

Autism Conference

This year’s Creating Your Own Path Autism Conference was an amazing experience for everyone in attendance thanks to our wonderful presenters and Dr. Temple Grandin! Thank you to everyone who worked behind the scenes to make this conference a success and to everyone who attended!

During the conference, Lisa Bryant (third from left) was presented with the Matt Armstrong Autism Advancement Achievement Award. The award is named in honor and remembrance of Matt Armstrong, former DMH Deputy Executive Director, who dedicated his life to enhancing the lives of Mississippians who have autism and their families. He made an enduring contribution to improving services and the quality of life for those on the autism spectrum.


Lisa Bryant, the recipient of this year’s award, has spent her career helping shape services for people with autism in Mississippi. She is a founding board member of TEAAM Autism, the author of the original Kamp Kaleidoscope grant, founding board member of the first Statewide Autism Board, helped develop the Statewide Autism Training Initiative, and provided leadership for many other contributions to the families in our state.

College Ready, Here We Come!

Getting ready to attend postsecondary education institutions after high school, such as colleges and universities, community colleges, vocational schools, and transition programs, can be a challenging process. This checklist is designed to help youth with disabilities identify tasks that need to be completed in order to be ready to attend postsecondary education programs and to be successful in the postsecondary environment. Remember that it will be important to reach out to the Disability Support Services (DSS) at your chosen institution for personalized assistance and accommodations that are tailored to your needs.


Postseconary education is a journey, and with the right skills and support, youth with disabilities can achieve their educational goals and beyond. Remember that there is a lot of assistance available to you from you high school counselor, your vocational rehabilitation counselor, and your Disability Support Services counselor, as well as friends and family. Ask for help when needed so that you can be successful in your postsecondary education experience.

Download Tip Sheet

Learning Independently, Here We Come!

Developing specific learning strategies can help individuals with disabilities to pursue postsecondary education and training experiences by enhancing their learning and improving their understanding and retention of information. This checklist identifies some key skills needed to learn more effectively, optimize learning experiences, and achieve better results from learning experiences.


These learning strategies can assist in postsecondary transition programs for students with cognitive disabilities, college or university degree programs, and vocational training programs. Additionally, these learning strategies can assist in personal learning, job training, and other life-long learning opportunities. This checklist can be used to mark off skills as they are mastered, as a transition assessment for postsecondary education and training, and to develop Individualized Education Program goals for skills still to be mastered.

Download checklist here

Independent Futures That Work Tip Sheets

Have you ever wondered about all the living options that are available for individuals with significant disabilities? The Independent Futures that Work! project has a new tip sheet out that discusses the available options.



Download Tip Sheet

Independent Futures that Work! project has two new tip sheets available today that address the benefits of work for individuals with disabilities and how work can affect SSI benefits. Be sure to check these tip sheets out. 

Download Tip Sheet

Why is physical education important? How is it helpful to me, as an individual with a disability?

Classes can teach you to care for your body and learn physical, mental, and emotional skills that include:

  • Motor skills (training to use your muscles for certain things, such as swinging a baseball bat to hit a ball, or running very hard in a race)
  • Physical fitness (keeping healthy and strong by exercising your body)
  • Social-emotional skills, teamwork, social play skills
  • Skills for athletics like team sports like soccer or basketball or individual athletics like gymnastics or dance
  • Skills for recreation like biking, swimming, hiking, throwing frisbees, playing games with friends

How Adapted PE works:

Access or accessible means how easy it is to do, to get, or understand something.


There are four main areas where changing general PE curriculum (school courses) may help you access PE. Some of these changes will benefit ALL students using the general PE curriculum.

  • The physical space can be changed to work well for all students:
  • The size of the space and the number of other students can affect how accessible the PE class is for you.
  • Lighting, sound, and what you see can all affect your comfort in a class. Making thoughtful changes to these things can make a PE class more accessible.
  • Teaching: the teacher gathers information about individual students to make sure that they use teaching methods that are accessible to everyone. This might mean spoken instructions, movements, pictures, written words, showing how to do something, or videos.
  • Equipment: depending on your disability, you might need PE equipment to move more slowly, be bigger or smaller, easier to feel, be easier to see and other changes like those.
  • Rules: to make sure PE includes everyone, rules of the game may need to be added or taken away.
Learn more here

Upcoming Events

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Society Buddy Walk


October 5

Trustmark Park

Pearl, MS


Click here to register

21 United of Mississippi Buddy Walk


October 20 @ 2:00 PM

Old Armory Pavillion

Oxford, MS


Click here to register


Click here to register

Independence, Here We Come!

Thursday, October 3

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM


Click here to register



Building Social Connections: An Introduction to the PEERS Program for Parents

Tuesday, October 22

12:00 PM - 12:30 PM


Click here to register


What Is UDL (Universal Design for Learning)? An Introduction for Families

Monday, October 28

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM


Click here to register


Children and Lead: What We Don't Know Can Hurt Them

Tuesday, October 29

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM


Click here to register


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