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2025 Disability Summit

Our second annual Disability Summit will be held on

Friday, October 3, 2025 at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center.

 

 

MSU Disability Summit

Call for Proposals

Important Dates:

  • Submission Deadline: Friday, May 30th at 11:59 pm EST
  • Determination Notification: Tuesday, July 15th by 5:00 pm EST
  • Accepted Materials Due: Friday, September 12th at 11:59 pm EST
  • Disability Summit: Friday, October 3rd

Topics and Audience:

In 2024, Michigan State University hosted its first Disability Summit focusing on disability in higher education. We were overjoyed by the interest and large attendance and are excited to announce the theme of this year’s Disability Summit, Disability Inclusion and Belonging. We look forward to providing a space for the MSU community to gather and discuss the ways in which disability inclusion and belonging are and can continue being centered on campus.

This year, we’ve broadened our Summit to include presentations, flash talks, poster presentations, panel discussions, and workshops. We hope these varying sessions will encourage broadened dialogue across the MSU community. We encourage proposals from students, staff, and faculty.  

We are specifically looking for session proposals that center the lived experiences of disability and accessible practices. All relevant sessions are encouraged and will be reviewed. Outlined below, are some specific topics we are interested in exploring:

  • Accessible pedagogy and classroom design
  • Accessible and inclusive practices
  • Disability in the workplace
  • Disability identity formation
  • Disability studies and research
  • Sense of belonging
  • Disability perspectives across degree and career levels
  • Anything relevant to the topic of disability inclusion and belonging

Submission Guidelines: 

Please submit your proposal using our Qualtrics form. Submissions are due Friday, May 30th at 11:59 pm (EST). If you need assistance completing this form or encounter accessibility issues, please contact Evalyn Yanna (OCR.evalynyanna@msu.edu).

There is a Word document equivalent of this submission form for those who prefer to prepare their proposal in advance and/or copy and paste into the form

All proposals must include the following information. For specific details on submission materials, please review our outline (PDF).

  • Session title (10-word limit)
  • Session abstract (100-word limit)
  • Session outline (3-8 bullet points)
  • Commitment to inclusion & belonging (100-word limit)
  • Learning goals (Please list 2-3 learning goals and limit each to 25 words)
  • (Optional) Positionality statement (100-word limit)

Selection Criteria:

All sessions will be reviewed by a committee of staff and students from across campus utilizing a robust evaluation rubric. Please review our rubric (PDF) for further information. Determinations will be sent on Tuesday, July 15th by 5:00 pm (EST).

Presenter Expectations:

  • Please utilize principles of Universal Design.
  • Mark your calendars for Tuesday, July 15th for determination information.
  • If accepted, all materials should be emailed to OCR.evalynyanna@msu.edu by Friday, September 12th at 5:00 pm to allow our interpreter and captioning team time to review.
  • Presentation materials and handouts must be digitally accessible. Please review MSU’s Digital Accessibility website for resources and instructions.
  • Videos must be captioned.
  • Presenters should verbally describe any visual aids/photos used during a session.

 

 

Please subscribe to our email list for all Summit updates, Disability news items, and more!

To subscribe to our mailing list, email listserv@list.msu.edu and copy the command line below in the BODY OF THE MESSAGE (not the subject line):  SUBSCRIBE MSU-DISABILITY-CONNECTION

You will receive an email from the listserv with a link to confirm your request. (If it's not in your inbox, please check your spam folder.) If you receive an error, check your sent message to ensure the command was in the body of the message and copied exactly as it appears in this message. If you need assistance, please contact ocr.evalynyanna@msu.edu.

 

 

Explore the 2024 Disability Summit for more information.

Accessibility