Keynote speakers

JAN WILLEM GORTER, CANADA

Jan Willem Gorter, MD, PhD, FRCP (C)
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON Canada.

Title: Turn the Tide on Transition to Promote Participation
More young people with disabilities grow up and become adults living in the community. Worldwide, there is a need for better transitional care for adolescents with disabilities and their families leaving the pediatric care system. What can be done to turn the tide on transition? This presentation will focus on an approach to promote meaningful participation outcomes in adulthood and includes innovative eHealth strategies to help young people prepare for their future.

BIOGRAPHICAL LISTINGS

Jan Willem Gorter, MD, PhD, FRCP(C) is Director of CanChild, Professor of Pediatrics and Scotiabank Chair in Child Health Research at McMaster University in Canada.
Jan Willem has training in pediatric and adult physical medicine and rehabilitation with a special clinical and research interest in healthcare transition and lifecourse health development. He has extensive clinical and research experience in the transition to adulthood and leads a teen-transition clinic for adolescents with disabilities and their families at McMaster Children’s Hospital.
He chairs the national Transitions’ Community of Practice in Canada and has co-lead and co-authored Ontario’s and Canada’s Transition guidelines, respectively. Jan Willem has developed the Transition-Q measure and the MyTransition App. He currently is (co) principal investigator on various eHealth transition intervention studies.
Jan Willem has published extensively including 170 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals and 16 chapters in books, including transition to adulthood and ethical issues in transition.

BRYCE JOHNSON, USA

Bryce Johnson, Inclusive Lead, Product Research & Accessibility
Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Devices, Seattle, USA

Title: The Xbox Adaptive Controller, Intentionally including gamers with limited mobility

SHORT BIO

Bryce Johnson has been designing accessible experiences and technology for over 15 years. As a member of Team Xbox he was part of the core team that started the inclusive design and accessibility practice. Bryce worked across Microsoft teams to launch the assistive technologies on the Xbox One, including Copilot. Bryce initiated and designed the very first Inclusive Tech Lab at Microsoft, which has now hosted over five thousand visitors; it is a facility where people can explore how gamers with disabilities interact with Microsoft games, services, and devices. Bryce has also been a member of the Xbox Adaptive Controller team ever since he was a lead on its inception as a hack project at the 2016 Microsoft Oneweek Hackathon. Bryce is now the Inclusive Lead for Microsoft Devices where he is devoted to ensuring our products are accessible.

LEE RIDLEY (« LOST VOICE GUY »), UK

Lee Ridley (« Lost Voice Guy »), Stand-up comedian
UK

SHORT BIO

Lee won Britain’s Got Talent in 2018 and the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014. Lee’s other credits include I Just Called To Say… (Sky Arts), Ability (BBC Radio 4), The One Show (BBC One), Breakfast (BBC One), This Morning(ITV), Lorraine (ITV) and Comedy Central At The Comedy Store (Comedy Central UK).

Lee made his first stand-up performance in February 2012 and now gigs all over the country for many of the major comedy bookers and clubs such as The Stand, Glee, The Frog & Bucket, Hilarity Bites and Funhouse Comedy. He has also supported Patrick Kielty and Ross Noble on tour. In 2013 Lee took his first ever solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe and has performed a show there every year since. He has also performed at the Brighton Fringe, Glasgow International Comedy Festival, Leicester Comedy Festival, Nottingham Comedy Festival and Liverpool Comedy Festival.

Lee has told jokes/given motivational speeches for a range of charities and organisations including Barclays, Scope and The Royal College of Nurses. He is also a patron of Smile For Life, Find A Voice, Communication Matters and The Sequal Trust.

SUE FLETCHER WATSON, UK

Sue Fletcher Watson, Senior Research Fellow
Patrick Wild Centre, University of Edinburgh

Title: Merging psychological theory with a neurodiversity framework for better autism interventions.
The neurodiversity movement emphasises natural variability in the way that different people’s brains work. It is associated with the disability rights and autistic rights movement, which calls for greater understanding of autism (and other neurodevelopment conditions) in terms of differences rather than deficits. Taken at face value, the neurodiversity principle seems to be hard to reconcile with the high levels of need often encountered in clinical and education settings. Can we adopt a neurodiversity framework while also providing evidence-based supports where they are needed? In this talk Sue Fletcher-Watson will describe how a progressive model of autism can be combined with psychological theory and participatory methods to deliver evidence based interventions without compromising respect or scientific integrity.

SHORT BIO

Sue Fletcher-Watson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Patrick Wild Centre, University of Edinburgh. She is a developmental psychologist, studying how children grow and learn, with a particular focus on non-normative experiences, such as autism and preterm birth. Her work aims to apply rigorous methods from psychology to questions with clinical, educational and societal impact. Current research themes include: investigations of how digital interactive technologies can best be deployed to support learning and personal growth for autistic children; describing the impact of bilingualism on cognitive development and life experiences in autistic people; and innovative empirical tests of the ‘double empathy problem’ in the context of interaction between neurodivergent and neurotypical adults. She strives to achieve meaningful partnerships with community representatives and to support neurodivergent leadership in research. She is a recipient of the British Psychological Society Margaret Donaldson Award and a Certificate of Excellence from Autism Rights Group Highland.

YANNICK BLEYENHEUFT, BELGIUM

Yannick Bleyenheuft, PT, PhD
Professor at the Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Honorary attached to the Center for Cerebral Palsy Research of the Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, USA

Title: HABIT-ILE, an intensive intervention increasing autonomy and participation in children with cerebral palsy.
Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities has gained a growing interest since its development in 2011. This motor-skill learning based intervention uses functional goals defined by the children and their parents to promote autonomy and participation. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated in children with both unilateral and with bilateral CP, and the observed functional improvements have shown a link to neuroplastic changes. This keynote will focus on the key principles of HABIT-ILE, the improvements obtained in different subgroups of children with CP at the level of motor and non-motor functions, and the changes induced in autonomy and social participation

SHORT BIO

Yannick Bleyenheuft, PT, PhD, is Professor at the Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium and honorary attached to the Center for Cerebral Palsy Research of the Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, USA. Yannick Bleyenheuft has training in physiotherapy and rehabilitation, with a complementary degree in neuroscience and a PhD in movement sciences dedicated to the motor control of children with cerebral palsy (CP). She is currently holder of the first Chair fully dedicated to intensive neurorehabilitation in children with CP and has developed HABIT-ILE, an intensive intervention combining bimanual coordination with a constant lower extremity and/or postural stimulation, which has been successfully applied both in children with unilateral and with bilateral CP. Her research group the « motor skill learning and intensive neurorehabilitation lab » is committed to improving the autonomy and participation of children with CP, notably through the understanding of motor control alterations and the development of therapeutic models based on motor skill learning, as well as the neuroplastic changes associated with these therapies. Her work is currently supported by the Fonds de Soutien Marguerite-Marie Delacroix (Belgium), the Fondation JED-Belgique (Belgium) and the Fondation Paralysie cérébrale (France).

MILLER FREEMAN, USA

Miller Freeman, M.D.
Last Co-director of the Cerebral Palsy Program and the Clinical Director of the Gait Analysis Laboratory at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children,

Title: Future Options for Managing Complex Multi-system Disabilities

SHORT BIO

Dr Miller was Co-director of the Cerebral Palsy Program and the Clinical Director of the Gait Analysis Laboratory at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children for 30 years. His clinical practice of pediatric orthopedics is limited to children with cerebral palsy. Reseach interests include investigation of surgical outcomes of CP surgery through gait analysis; mathematical modeling of the hip joint in children with CP, hip monitoring and management for children with CP, and management of spinal deformity in CP. Dr. Miller has published approximately 200 articles in peer reviewed journals, has published a book Cerebral Palsy: A Guide for Caregiving directed at families and is now in the 3rd edition. A medical textbook, Cerebral Palsy outlining musculoskeletal care of the child with cerebral palsy was published in 2005 by Springer-Verlag with 2nd edition expected on 2019. He has been invited to give many lectures in 35 different countries.