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. Just 5% of the 485 companies that participated in the 2023 Disability Equality Index indicated that they have advancement and retention programming solely focused on their employees with disabilities. 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 2024 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
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, nomination-based program that is open for both self-nominations and nominations by others. Participants will be selected by a Selection 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. A maximum of 25 program participants will be selected to participate in the pilot 2024 Early Career Talent Accelerator cohort.
Eligibility requirements include:
- Must identify as a person with a disability based upon the United Nations’ definition of disability
- Must be a U.S.-based salaried employee of a Disability:IN Corporate Partner
- Possess 3-7 years of professional, post-graduation 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 2024 Disability:IN Global Conference & Expo (July 15-18 in Las Vegas)
2024 Program Timeline
- October 2, 2023: Program Nomination Opens
- January 26, 2024: Program Nomination Closes (Nominations will be reviewed on a rolling basis as received with selection decisions made on a first-come, first-served basis until all 25 spots are filled, so early nominations are encouraged)
- February 26, 2024: Nominees Notified of Program Participation Decision
- May 1, 2024: Early Career Talent Accelerator Begins – Week 1
- July 18, 2024: Early Career Talent Accelerator Concludes – Week 12
Participation Cost
The participant fee which covers program administration costs is being waived for participants of the 2024 Early Career Talent Accelerator cohort thanks 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 15-18, 2024 in Las Vegas.