The TIP Brief: Beyond the Surface
June 2026 Newsletter

Help Us Learn From Employers through the 2026 Business Survey – Please share!

To better support businesses and strengthen workforce participation, TIP invites businesses to complete a brief anonymous survey about disability and employment. This will help up better understand what information is most wanted and needed. We ask businesses around the country to complete the survey by June 30. It’s a great way to influence positive change in your community’s workforce! Please share with businesses in your network so their voices can help shape future disability employment resources.

Redefining Opportunity: A National Look at Disability Employment Innovation
Learn at Lunch

June 16, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET 

Presenter: Dina Klimkina

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify emerging national trends, policies, and innovative practices that are improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities.
2. Describe how state and local initiatives are addressing barriers to competitive integrated employment through partnerships, technology, and systems change strategies.
3. Discuss ways that promising disability employment practices and lessons learned from across the country to enhance employment opportunities and outcomes within their own organizations and communities.

This event is co-hosted by TIP and the Kentucky Employment First Council. There will be an opportunity for further discussion with TIP staff immediately following the presentation.

Community of Practice with the Training Innovation Project

June 23, 12:00 pm - 12:30 pm ET 

Come to share ideas, solve problems, build skills and create practical tools that support competitive integrated employment.  The  Community of Practice (COP) is meant to grow naturally over time, giving participants the chance to shape discussions and activities around what matters most to them and their work. The next COP event will be held August 24 from 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM ET.  

Setting the Record Straight About Hiring and Retaining Disabled Workers: Debunking Myths
A TIP Master Class 

CRC Credit Available

June 24, 2:00 pm– 3:00 pm ET

Presenter: Phillip Rumrill, PhD, CRC
This master class, led by Dr. Phillip Rumrill, will explore the progress made in creating a more inclusive and accessible American workforce for people with disabilities. It will also highlight persistent concerns among employers related to hiring and accommodating workers with disabilities. Finally, the session will share research-based evidence demonstrating that workers with disabilities perform on par with their non-disabled peers, underscoring the disability community as a valuable and often untapped labor resource.

Workforce & Employer Engagement Summit

September 22, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET

On September 22, 2026, the TIP inaugural Workforce & Employer Engagement Summit will be held virtually. This event will bring partners together to share lessons learned, strengthen employer partnerships, and explore practical tools that can be adapted across settings. More details coming soon!

2026 Autism Informed Employers Video Series

The Kentucky Employment First Council, Innovative Supports for Autistic Workers (ISAW), and the Training Innovation Project (TIP) share Episode 5 of the 2026 Autism Informed Employers quick-hit video series. This is a monthly 2-minute video series along with quarterly topical conversations. Episode 5 shares information on ways Autistic people are frequently misunderstood plus ideas of how to include, without overwhelming, people.

AI Agent Now Available at tiptrain.com

The Training Innovation Project website now features an AI assistant to support users.  The AI assistant specializes in tiptrain.com content. It can help search and retrieve information and locate answers to questions about the site’s indexed content. It can also help visitors find specific pages, sections or categories. The AI assistant can also break down topics into plain language and summarize content. To use the AI Assistant, visit the website and select the chat bubble icon located in the bottom-right corner of any page on the site, and type your question.

Five Minutes that Make a Difference

At TIP, we are committed to providing high-quality professional development opportunities that are relevant, practical, and responsive to the needs of vocational rehabilitation professionals and their partners. One of the most important ways you can help us achieve that goal is by completing the evaluation survey following each training event.

Whether you participate in a Learn at Lunch, Community of Practice, Master Class, or self-paced course, your feedback helps us understand what worked well, what could be improved, and what topics are most important to you. Evaluation responses guide future training development, help us identify emerging workforce needs, and ensure that our resources remain useful and impactful. Thank you for partnering with us to build a stronger workforce and expand opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

TIP Featured at Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board

On May 21, 2026, Johnny Collett presented an overview of the Training Innovation Project (TIP) to the Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board (KWIB), including an introduction to the recently launched TIP Business Survey. We are grateful to KWIB, Kentucky’s state workforce development board and a valued project partner, for providing the opportunity to share project updates and for helping disseminate information about TIP through its statewide network.

TIP National Advisory Panel member Kara Ayers is the Associate Director of the UCCEDD and a LEND Core Faculty member at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She is a psychologist and Associate Professor whose research focuses on parenting with a disability, disability culture in the media, and health inequities experienced by people with disabilities. In addition to teaching and conducting research, she reviews public policies to understand their impact on people with disabilities and collaborates with policy makers to strengthen those policies.