To celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Minnesota IT Services’ (MNIT) Office of Accessibility hosted a virtual event with our legislative and judicial partners. The event highlighted the unique challenges and opportunities for legislative and judicial offices to adopt digital accessibility practices.

We are grateful to our partners at the legislature and the courts for their time and effort to make this such a successful event!

Below are links to a YouTube video recording and presentation slides from the event. The recording includes ASL interpreting, closed captions and a transcript.

Panel Discussion: Expanding Digital Accessibility: Minnesota Legislative and Judicial Office Initiatives

View the presentation:

• Watch the MN Legislative and Judicial Offices panel discussion (YouTube).
• Read the /mnit/assets/GAAD%202025%20Leg%20and%20Jud%20Panel%20Transcript_tcm38-690639.pdfMN Legislative and Judicial Offices panel discussion transcript (PDF).
• View the /mnit/assets/GAAD%202025%20Panelist%20Discussion%20-%20Presentation%20Slides%20-%20FINAL_tcm38-690640.pdfMN Legislative and Judicial Offices panel discussion presentation slides with links to resources (PDF).

GAAD Event Speakers

Host:

• Jay Wyant, Chief Information Accessibility Officer, State of Minnesota

Panel Participants:

• Jim Melby, Sr. Accessibility Analyst & Lead, Legislative Coordinating Commission
• Molly Rosentreter, Digital Accessibility and Training Coordinator, Legislative Coordinating Commission
• Kate Malmon, Senior Project Manager, Minnesota Judicial Branch
• Suzanne Mateffy, Communications Analyst, Minnesota Judicial Branch

GAAD Experience Lab Event Recap

During GAAD, we held our first in-person Experience Lab in more than six years! Thanks to our State of Minnesota staff and Digital Accessibility Coordinators from several agencies who volunteered to run these experiences and the staff who came out to give them a try!

Four labs: Cognitive, Hearing, Motor and Vision, gave participants firsthand experience at how people with disabilities use digital technology, offering new insight and perspective. You can try these activities on your own, visit our Experience Lab web page to learn more.

Caption: Experience Lab set up

Caption: Motor Lab in action