What Makes Us Different?
Where can you find policymakers, parents, educators, and related service providers together in the same space, discussing, sharing, and collaborating?
Where can you attend a wide range of sessions such as supporting students with visual impairments, selecting the proper assistive technology, and cultivating social skills in young children with autism?
Where can you connect with a paraprofessional in Ohio, an educator in Scotland, a service provider in California, and a self-advocate in Alaska?
Where else but OCALICON?
We connect and collaborate across the lifespan, across agencies, and across the world.
Across the Lifespan
We don't focus only on early childhood, K-12 students, or young adults. Our focus is across the lifespan because every age and every milestone is important. Babies become toddlers who become students who become adolescents who become adults. All of these stages of life matter, and we want to address the needs and challenges of each of them – both individually and collectively.
Across Agencies
We don't bring together only school districts, state departments, or non-profits. Our focus is across agencies because we can go farther, faster, when we work together. OCALICON brings together school districts and state departments, non-profits and private companies, parents and family members, social workers and general education teachers, special education teachers and policymakers, direct service providers and early childhood providers, and so many others. This cross-section cultivates continued collaboration, sparks new innovations, and promotes endless possibilities.
Across the World
We don't believe our backyard is the only place that needs support, ideas, and resources. Our focus is not only the young child living in our own city, but the teacher six states away who is struggling to provide her students with the best possible opportunities, and the administrator on the other side of the world who is hungry to create change in his own country. We don't convene just Ohioans, or Americans, we convene the world.
OCALICON is the place where ideas are exchanged, relationships are formed, and inspiration is transformed into action. We hope you'll join us and see first-hand what it means to be a part of this unique community.