Intellectual Disabilities Communication Lab at UIUC

🧡💙Congratulations to Alex Barkhimer and Kai-Yun (Karen) Huang, PhD students in Dr. Channell’s IDCL and Dr. Mattie’s UIUC Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab!! Alex and Karen were selected as 2026 Goldstick Fellows in the College of Education.

The Goldstick Family Initiative assists in providing states, schools, and families with recommended practices to improve learning and living outcomes for individuals with communication disabilities. Alex and Karen are both conducting research on in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science.



Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

Thank you to the many adults with Down syndrome and others with speech differences who shared their voices with us to make this possible!

Zoom announces improved transcription thanks to data from the Speech Accessibility Project Zoom has announced improvements in how it transcribes the speech of people with disabilities, thanks to data from the Speech Accessibility Project.

Check out this great resource! ✨

𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 "𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬" 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬!

Watch here: qr.link/qsYuxf
Read the Full Update here: qr.link/udpEYM

The Arc of Illinois is proud to launch Know Your Options, a new video series showcasing the living options available to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout Illinois.

Finding the right living option is one of the most common requests we hear from individuals and families. We created this series to give families, self-advocates, and stakeholders a clearer picture of the options available and help support informed decisions.

Thank you to our partners at the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Developmental Disabilities, and the Independent Service Coordinators (ISCs) who helped us develop this series.

We also thank Blair Inc. Strategic Marketing and the residents of Milestone, the Goldie B. Floberg Center, and Clearbrook for welcoming us into their homes, as well as The Arc of Winnebago, Boone & Ogle Counties for welcoming us into their day programs, including a special invitation to book club at Beef-a-Roo!

A special thank you to our own Shirley Perez for her contributions to this project and her steady and exceptional leadership.

The first video is available now, with more Know Your Options videos on the way!

📣 WEBINAR! Supporting Communication for Children and Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
by Dr. MaryAnn Romski & Dr. Rose Sevcik

📍 Wednesday, September 16, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT

✨FREE for AAIDD members
($10 for non-members)

🔗 REGISTER HERE: https://mms.aaidd.org/members/evr/reg_main.php?orgcode=AAID&evid=67292775

Tomorrow night, State Farm Center lights up for World Fragile X Day.

Though rare, Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability. An estimated 1 in 7,000 males and 1 in 11,000 females have FXS.

Help us spread awareness about the research into this genetic disorder.

(📸: World Fragile X Day 2024 / Laura Mattie)

UIUC Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab

Congratulations, Dr. Bosley! 👏

This award-winning instructor successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation. ✅

Last Friday, Speech and Hearing Science doctoral candidate Beka Bosley defended her dissertation, titled "Let’s ask caregivers what they need when they read together: Interviews with caregivers of school-age children with Down syndrome.”

Bosley will join the faculty of Lamar University this fall as assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences in Beaumont, Texas. She worked as a speech-language pathologist in Champaign schools and won a campus award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2025.

Many thanks to her committee for their guidance and support — Dr. Savanna Brittlebank, Dr. Laura Mattie, and Dr. Catherine Cheung from Northern Illinois University.

Congratulations! She is the first Ph.D. from the Intellectual Disabilities Communication Lab at UIUC led by Associate Professor Marie Moore Channell.

✈️ Champaign > Denver > Chicago
The IDCL had a busy June!
From the T21 Research Society’s International Conference to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Sesquicentennial Conference, we…

📈 Presented new research findings
🤝 Connected with colleagues and friends
💙💛💙 Celebrated community
📢 Called for continued progress

Thank you to all who made these events happen! Global Down Syndrome Foundation
NIH INCLUDE Down Syndrome
National Down Syndrome Society
AAIDD



Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

This project includes people with Down syndrome. Great to see the impact of this work in the disability community being recognized!

We are thankful to our many colleagues who have contributed to this project, including our partner lab, Dr. Laura Mattie’s UIUC Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab, Clinical Associate Professor Clarion Mendes, Dr. Heejin Kim, Dr. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson (Lead Investigator), Communications Director Meg Dickinson, and MANY community partners who help make sure people with disabilities and speech differences have the opportunity to contribute to this study.



Forbes

Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

Speech Accessibility Project named to Forbes Accessibility 200 list Forbes included the project and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in its Accessibility 200 list. It includes global leaders in communication, mobility, education, software, consumer products, robotics, sports and recreation, travel, the workplace, entertainment and more.

That’s a wrap! The 2025-2026 IDCL worked hard and played hard!
✨They contributed to 3 funded research projects, led 3 of their own, presented to (and with) community partners, helped write scientific papers, hosted a global disability advocate’s visit to campus, volunteered with local disability advocacy organizations, won fellowships and scholarships for their academic excellence and commitment to community service, welcomed a visiting scholar from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile into the IDCL family, and much, much more!

✨This was a special bunch. ✨

🎓Abbie, Liz, and Megan (not pictured) are entering the professional world as SLPs, and Beka (not pictured) will be a professor starting this fall.

👏 Way to go, everyone! Thank you for all you do for the Down syndrome and disability community! 💛💙💛



Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

Congratulations, IDCL graduates! 🎓Abbie Keasler, Liz Gremer, and Megan Alajoki completed their master’s degrees in our clinical speech-language pathology program. The world just gained 3 very special SLPs! 💙🧡💙


Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois