2025: A Year in Review

Graphic reads "Disability IN Minnesota's 25th Anniversary" in gold text against a dark blue gradient background. Gold stars and confetti surround the text.

Celebrating Disability:IN Minnesota’s 25th Anniversary

August 6, 2025

Disability:IN Minnesota 2025 Year in Review

Shannon Perry, a Caucasian woman in a navy blue short sleeve blouse and shoulder length brown hair looking forward at the camera.

Disability:IN Minnesota network,

Looking back upon all we have accomplished in 2025, I find myself grateful for what we achieved and for everyone who helped us through what could have been a very challenging year. Our members kept focused and dedicated to inclusion and our community, while learning and exemplifying what best practices can look like in the workplace.

Disability:IN Minnesota and our affiliates have hosted great events highlighting disability inclusion, accommodations, Disability Owned Businesses or DOBEs, and how our teams can show up for each other in support. From mentors to mentees, and member meetings to pillar events, there is much to celebrate in 2025.

We begin every year with the Career Connections Mentorship Program. The connections made between our mentors and mentees are such an inspiration. It’s a wonderful opportunity to develop the skills necessary to grow in the mentees’ chosen career paths. We had 13 great pairs, who, with our board member coordinators, spent January to March working on topics to aid in their professional growth.

In April, we hosted the Disability:IN Minnesota Inclusive Career Fair online. This event is a high point of our year and a pillar of how we can help skilled job seekers find employers who value inclusion. The employers who dedicate the people and resources to this fair are truly putting themselves and their workplaces at the forefront of inclusion. We had dozens of active job seekers ready to connect and interview with these teams. It’s a great opportunity for members looking to find skilled employees.

We love to highlight Disability Owned Business Enterprises in September and this year’s Reigniting to Reimagining Supplier Inclusion was no exception. We hosted attendees and businesses both here in Minnesota and through our affiliates at Disability:IN National, Chicagoland, Washington D.C., and North Carolina, for discussion about the supply chain and how to find and utilize DOBEs.

We hosted member meetings including the Disability Equality Index: Get Informed and Getting Engaged speaking about the index offered each year through our national organization and how to use it to highlight your work in inclusion, as well as Neurodiversity Leveling Up Our Perspective with Haley Moss focused on neurodiversity inclusion and disclosure in the workplace in May. And not to overlook the good things, we celebrated both the 35^th anniversary of the ADA in July and International Day of People with Disabilities in December with cast members from the hit show Survivor, Eva Erickson and Mitch Guerra.

Our state of Minnesota is lucky to be at the forefront of disability inclusion in the workforce, and I am very proud to be included in such a wonderful board and organization doing this work. We have much to accomplish, but know that together we are making a real difference in the lives of fellow Minnesotans.

The support and efforts delivered by our membership and our board members past and present, is truly amazing. Thank you for being part of the Disability:IN Minnesota network. Together, we are creating a more inclusive and accessible future for all.

With admiration,

Shannon Perry