Early Career Talent Accelerator

Apply Now for the Early Career Talent Accelerator

Applications close on January 31, 2025

Office Hours

Join us at 3:00pm EST on Oct. 3^rd, Nov. 7^th and Dec. 12^th for Early Career Talent Accelerator Office Hours to learn more about the program and get your questions answered.

Visit the Disability:IN Partner Portal to register for these sessions.

Professionals require customized and relevant development programming at every career stage, and professionals with disabilities are no different. The Disability:IN Early Career Talent Accelerator was designed by people with disabilities for people with disabilities for this very reason. The program aims to ensure that professionals with disabilities are provided comparable professional development opportunities as their peers in Corporate America – taking into account the specific contextual and cultural factors that an individual’s disability identity might play in their career journey.

For corporations, creating clear and consistent pathways for career development and advancement for employees with disabilities are critical signals of a company’s commitment to a disability-inclusive culture. The Early Career Talent Accelerator can help by providing companies a tangible way to demonstrate their commitment to developing disabled talent while also offering meaningful, culturally contextualized skills-based career development for their employees with disabilities.

Curriculum Overview

The 12-week hybrid Early Career Talent Accelerator combines self-paced content with virtual instruction over the first 11 weeks before culminating with an in-person capstone learning session and graduation at the 2025 Disability:IN Global Conference & Expo. The program curriculum provides carefully crafted and curated content that is culturally contextualized to consider the experiences of professionals with disabilities as well as being appropriate and adequate to the development needs of early career professionals (individual contributors or first-time supervisors).

The curriculum is divided into three four-week modules that are designed to address every aspect of holistic career development: Self, Skills and Others.

Curriculum Framework

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Icon of one silhouette with two arrows pointing outwards to three smaller silhouettes.

Self

Week 1: Orientation & Program Kickoff
Week 2: Owning Your Story : Part 1
Week 3: Owning Your Story : Part 2
Week 4: Growth & Development

Skills

Week 5: Accessibility Skills Lab
Week 6: Powerful Presentations
Week 7: By The Numbers
Week 8: Disability Etiquette

Others

Week 9: Feedback is a Gift
Week 10: Identifying & Cultivating Mentorship
Week 11: Becoming an Inclusive Leader
Week 12: Conference Capstone & Networking

Program Eligibility

The Early Career Talent Accelerator is a competitive, discretionary based program. Participants will be selected by a Committee which will choose participants based upon careful consideration of a program candidate’s career accomplishments to date and projectable potential to benefit from the program.

Eligibility requirements include:

Must identify as a person with a disability based upon the United Nations’ definition of disability
Must be a North American-based salaried employee of a Disability:IN Corporate Partner
Possess 2-5 years of professional career experience
Minimum of 2 years with current employer
Must commit to attend/participate in all components of the program, including in-person attendance at the 2025 Disability:IN Global Conference & Expo (July 14-17 in Orlando)
Must have current employer’s full support to complete all program requirements and commitment to cover all costs associated with participation, if accepted, including, but not limited to, attending the Disability:IN Conference

Testimonials

“After meeting virtually for 11 weeks, it was great to meet everyone in the ECTA in person. It made me realize that I am not alone as a early career professional with a disability. I tell my coworkers often that the best part of ECTA was making 24 new friends in the cohort that I will continue to keep in touch with well after the end of conference.”

– Victoria O’Rear, University Relations & Recruiting Talent Acquisition Business Partner at Northrop Grumman (2024 Cohort)

“Disability:IN’s Early Career Talent Accelerator program has been a transformative experience in my professional journey. Its 12-week curriculum and thoughtful weekly resources have supported my advocacy for disability inclusion, most prominently in areas of accessibility and storytelling. The program’s focus on everyday experiences has allowed me to directly implement my learnings in my workplace. Moreover, the connections and opportunity to learn from industry leading experts has been instrumental in improving my leadership skills and cultivating an empathic people-centric mindset.

Meeting my ECTA peers at the conference was a rewarding experience. The presence of like-minded individuals, all striving towards a common goal, provided a safe space for transparent discussions and the exchanges of innovative ideas. This experience not only broadened my perspective but also fostered multi-faceted professional relationships that will be beneficial in my future endeavors.”

– Tolliver Davis, People Senior Manager at Sam’s Club (2024 Cohort)

2025 Program Timeline

October 1, 2024: Program Application Opens
January 31, 2025: Program Application Closes
February 28, 2025: Nominees Notified of Program Participation Decision
May 1, 2025: Early Career Talent Accelerator Begins – Week 1
July 17, 2025: Early Career Talent Accelerator Concludes – Week 12

Participation Cost

The participant fee which covers program administration costs is being waived for participants of the 2025 Early Career Talent Accelerator cohort due to a generous grant from a corporate partner. The only costs a participant’s company will incur will be expenses (registration, air, hotel and incidentals) associated with attending the Disability:IN Global Conference & Expo, taking place July 14-17, 2025 in Orlando.

Program Support

Thank you to the following Disability:IN Corporate Partners and Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (DOBEs) that have supported the Early Career Talent Accelerator.

If your company is interested in supporting the program, please contact Emily McDonald at [email protected].