Breaking Barriers and Building Futures

May 6-16, 2026

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) invites you to register for its Everyday Lives 2026 Virtual Conference! The 2026 Everyday Lives Conference will include ODP’s annual Dual Diagnosis Conference as a pre-conference event jointly hosted with the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS).

The biannual Everyday Lives Conference, hosted by the Pennsylvania Office of Developmental Programs (ODP), invites individuals with a disability and/or autism (ID/A), family members, caregivers, and support professionals to engage in presentations and panels focused on sharing information that empowers the everyday lives of individuals with disabilities throughout Pennsylvania.

The 2026 Everyday Lives Conference (EDL) will be held virtually throughout the first two weeks of May 2026. The conference theme for 2026 is “Breaking Barriers and Building Futures”. The full conference program is available at the link below.

Visit the Everyday Lives Conference website to learn more and register!

What to Expect

The virtual conference will be hosted through the online platform Whova and will feature six days of presentations. A series of watch parties will be hosted throughout the state as an opportunity for conference-goers to connect and engage with the conference content together. Follow the registration link for more information.

The conference program is broken into three sections. Each conference section (excluding the post-conference) will include presentations for all ODP stakeholders, but some sessions may cater more to one audience than another. Regardless, we invite all audiences to attend every session. Content will be accessible and relevant to all.

Watch Parties

To help build the connections attendees have become accustomed to building at the Everyday Lives Conference, organizations around the Commonwealth will be hosting official EDL watch parties! The watch parties will feature opportunities to connect with fellow individuals with a disability and/or autism, other family members, and professional resources. They will include light refreshments and auditorium or classroom seating.

Watch Parties are confirmed for:

• Altoona
• Wellsboro
• Pottsville
• Lewistown
• Franklin (Venango County)

Watch Parties are tentatively being planned for the following locations and will be confirmed soon:

• Philadelphia
• Stroudsburg
• Kittanning

Interested in attending an EDL watch party? Visit the Watch Party Registration page.