There’s Hope on the Horizon: What ANCOR Connect ’25 Taught Us

This year’s annual conference, ANCOR Connect ’25: Oceans of Opportunity, was the largest-ever gathering of our incredible community of providers. Nearly 1,300 attendees joined us from all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, plus Belgium, Canada, Finland, India and Japan! Here are just some of the record-breaking stats from our three incredible days in San Diego, California:

• Nearly 1,300 attendees
• 400+ first time ANCOR Connect attendees
• 6 plenary sessions
• 35 breakout sessions
• 63 outstanding award recipients (including 54 DSPs!)
• 23 generous sponsors
• 66 amazing exhibitors

After the conference was over, I stayed in San Diego for a few days of vacation, during which I went on a whale watching cruise on the Pacific Ocean (we saw a humpback whale!). But before we left the dock, the deckhands told us that we were to expect some choppy water after we left the bay.

They told us that if we started to feel seasick at any time, our best chance at getting through it would be to stay outside and look out toward the horizon—to keep our eyes focused on the horizon line.

Photo credit: Elliot Mandel Photography

Although I thankfully didn’t feel seasick, I think a lot of us in the I/DD community are feeling that way about the world right now. We feel like the water we’re in is too choppy. We feel like we can’t even keep our heads up long enough to see the horizon line. So many of us are on autopilot, or in “just keep swimming” mode.

One of the reasons we hear regarding why so many ANCOR members come back to ANCOR Connect year after year is because they know they’ll feel more at ease once they’ve found their “school” to swim with—that is, they’ve found their people who make navigating uncertain waters a bit easier.

Fish puns aside, in all seriousness, this year’s conference reminded us that there is hope on the horizon. We will weather choppy waters (and even stormy seas) together.

Because of the passion you have for creating worlds of opportunity alongside people with disabilities. Because your tenacity and joy for the work you do runs deep. Because the internal compass (or in my case, the GPS app) that guides you continues to point toward that horizon where all communities—workplaces, capital buildings, schools, art clubs, theaters, places of worship, sporting arenas, breweries, recreation centers—are not only accepting of people with disabilities, but that all people with disabilities feel like they are truly included and that they belong in all of those spaces.

The work we do matters. Your work changes the individual lives of people with disabilities and changes entire communities for the better. This year’s gathering of our national association allowed us to have important conversations about innovative ways to provide the highest quality supports to people with disabilities.

From enabling technology, to DSP leadership, to addressing service access disparities, to strategic organizational transformation, plus inventive self-advocacy training, the conversations and light bulb moments we had in San Diego will help us navigate the future that lies ahead of us.

Photo credit: Elliot Mandel Photography

We learned from global leaders that the work for true inclusion of people with I/DD isn’t confined to the United States—but that there is a worldwide movement that’s been in the works for decades. And for many of us, perhaps most importantly, we learned that even in choppy waters, we are not alone.

If you were able to join us for ANCOR Connect ’25 as an attendee, a speaker, a sponsor, or an exhibitor, thank you. Even if you weren’t able to join us, thank you for the work you do and for being a part of our community. We can’t wait for next year’s annual gathering, April 21-23, 2026, in Boston! Until then, we’ll continue sailing toward that hope on the horizon, together.

Alli Strong-Martin is the Communications Coordinator at ANCOR.