Community Access Improvement Plan

GRANT

Many businesses and public spaces are not accessible or fully welcoming to people with disabilities. To address this barrier, Lifeworks is embarking on a long-term project to create a disability-friendly assessment that would help people identify and connect with disability-friendly places in our communities.

Goals and Motivation of Project

This work is supported by the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services – Disability Services Division.

The disability-friendly assessment would go above and beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), coaching businesses on how they can meet the criteria, while helping Minnesotans connect to these committed businesses.

To ensure this project is created by and for people with disabilities, we are creating a to help develop the criteria and give feedback on the process over the next 18 months.

Our aim is to significantly enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities in Minnesota by creating a robust, user-friendly tool to help identify and connect with disability-friendly businesses. Why?

Over half of us working at Lifeworks have a disability.
Throughout our 60 years of providing service, we have seen some improvements in accessibility, but not enough.
2/3 of unemployed and underemployed Minnesotans want a job! We simply need accessible ones.
Those of us with disabilities have higher rates of social isolation and mental health diagnosis – we want every Minnesotan to be able to participate in our communities.

Interested in becoming a Disability-Friendly Organization? Take the assessment here!

Click Here

Interested in becoming a Disability-Friendly Organization?

We invite Minnesota businesses and organizations to take our Disability-Friendly Assessment (DFA) — a free, anonymous coaching tool designed to help you understand how accessible and welcoming your space and practices are for people with disabilities.

The assessment goes beyond basic ADA compliance and looks at real-world accessibility across physical, sensory, attitudinal, economic, and social areas. After completing it, your organization will have the option to participate in free disability inclusion coaching and training to address the identified strengths and opportunities for improvement. The opportunity for free disability inclusion training and coaching is available through June 2026 and supported by the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services – Disability Services Division.

Take the Disability Friendly Assessment here (opens in new tab).

What We Are Assessming

We plan to create a Disability-Friendly Assessment criteria by and for the disability community. Using this, we’ll create a coaching and training program to support any interested Minnesota businesses and organizations in becoming disability-friendly. From there, we plan to design a technology tool that helps connect Minnesotans with businesses committed to going above and beyond the ADA.

The Disability Friendly Assessment evaluates accessibility across the following areas: