Celebrating Strength, Pride, and Community at Applied Systems

When Disabilities Month and Mental Health Awareness Month arrives, IndispensAbility – one of Applied's Communities of Interest dedicated to reducing stigma, integrating diverse talents, and fostering well-being for all – shows up with intention.

This year, Team Applied leaned in. From a 360-degree virtual tour celebrating the global legacy of disability rights to chair yoga sessions, wellness challenges, and honest conversations about mental health, the month reminded us how much we can offer each other when we create the space to do it.

Here's a look at what we explored, who inspired us, and the moments that brought us closer together.

Disabilities Month: Celebrating Inclusion in Action

At Team Applied, we had the opportunity to deepen our understanding of the experiences, contributions, and rights of people with disabilities – seen and unseen. Learning opportunities encouraged us to sit with history, challenge assumptions, and see the world through perspectives we might not encounter in our day-to-day work.

At the heart of this year's recognition was the Disability Pride Virtual Tour: an enlightening, 360-degree journey across history and continents, celebrating the achievements, resilience, and global impact of people with disabilities. It invited us to discover the remarkable individuals and movements that broke barriers, inspired millions, and permanently changed the world.

The tour covered far more ground than any summary can fully honor.

These five highlights reflect just a portion of the stories that moved, challenged, and inspired Team Applied:

Chieko Asakawa – Pioneering Accessible Technology

A member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Chieko Asakawa, a Japanese computer scientist, has spent her career transforming how people with visual impairments access information and navigate the world independently. This includes the Home Page Reader (HPR), the first practical voice browser to provide effective internet access for blind and visually impaired computer users. Asakawa also developed the AI suitcases that help people navigate public spaces like airports independently. Her work represents the cutting edge of disability-focused innovation and the power of designing from lived experience.

Ralph Braun and Ralf Hotchkiss – Two Innovators, One Mission: Mobility for All

What unites these two American innovators is their shared instinct: both turned personal necessity into solutions that changed others' lives. Braun built BraunAbility after retrofitting a vehicle lift for himself. Hotchkiss founded Whirlwind Wheelchair International to bring all-terrain wheelchairs to people in regions with fewer resources – driven by the belief that freedom of movement belongs to everyone.

Helen Keller's Childhood Home, Tuscumbia, Alabama – A Life That Redefined What Disability Could Mean

Left deaf and blind by a severe illness, Helen Keller became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her significance extends far beyond personal triumph – she co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), fought for women's suffrage, and established Helen Keller International, demonstrating that disability rights are inseparable from broader human rights.

Soldier Field, Chicago – The Special Olympics

Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics at Soldier Field in Chicago with a personal mission: to show the world the worth of people with disabilities through sport. What began with more than a thousand participants has grown into a year-round global movement operating in 172 countries – one of the most far-reaching disability inclusion initiatives in history.

U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. – The Capitol Crawl and the Road to the ADA

Approximately 60 people with disabilities left their wheelchairs and crawled up the Capitol steps in a demonstration that galvanized public support for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The demonstration drew intense media attention and served as an undeniable visual reminder of the barriers people with disabilities face every day.

Wellness in Action: Moving With Purpose

We also had two movement-based wellness opportunities that connected individual well-being to something larger than ourselves.

• IICF's Step Up Challenge invited team members to stay active while turning everyday movement into support for organizations focused on hunger relief and literacy. Every step counted – both personally and for the communities those organizations serve.
• World Vision's Global 6K for Water invited participants to walk, run, or roll six kilometers – representing the distance many people travel daily just to access clean water – and help provide water access to communities in need. It's a simple act that carries real weight.
• The Walking Challenge invited our European team members to celebrate National Walking Month in May by getting outside, recharging, and embracing the benefits of movement. Through a friendly team-based challenge, participants tracked their steps and aimed for the highest average by month's end. Along the way, teams stayed connected, shared photos from their walks, and made the most of the brighter days while prioritizing wellbeing.

Chair Yoga: Coming Together to Stretch and Feel Good

IndispensAbility hosted a virtual Chair Yoga session led by instructor Victoria, bringing Team Applied together for stretching that requires no prior experience – just a chair and a willingness to show up. No cameras required, no performance expected. Yoga's benefits – reduced stress, improved posture, better focus, and a calmer mind – are accessible to everyone, and chair yoga makes that truer than ever.

Mental Health Awareness Month: In Every Story, There's Strength

This year, IndispensAbility centered Mental Health Awareness Month around a simple but powerful truth: mental health isn't just about the hard days – it's about the resilience it takes to navigate them.

When we look at the chapters we've lived – the quiet mornings we chose to keep going, the moments we asked for help, the times we leaned on each other – we see something more than struggle. We see courage and strength we didn't always know we had.

This resilience also found a new symbol at Applied this month. We welcomed a new mascot, the Highland Cow (also known as the Hairy Coo!), that embodies the gentle strength the month is all about – a reminder that it is possible to be kind and strong at the same time, and that those qualities define how we want to show up for each other every day.

As we moved through the month, IndispensAbility invited everyone to do three things:

• Acknowledge the strength in yourself and in your own story.
• Listen to the stories of those around you without judgment.
• Normalize the conversation around mental well-being in our industry and in the world around us.

One quote in particular that really stuck with Team Applied was, "Be good to people for no reason."

What We Carry Forward

Together, we explored history, movement, reflection, and connection. We were reminded that disability is part of the human story – inseparable from culture, creativity, activism, and resilience. Mental health is not a side conversation but a central one, and when Team Applied shows up for each other, something meaningful happens.

Behind every event was a team of volunteers who worked hard to make it happen – members of Team Applied who dedicated time and care on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. A big thank-you to each of them for contributing to events that otherwise wouldn't have happened. We're proud of what this community builds together, and we're already looking forward to what comes next. Explore the Life at Applied section of our blog to learn how Applied Systems celebrates culture, diversity, and belonging.