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. Created by people with disabilities for people with disabilities, the Disability:IN Early Career Talent Accelerator aims to provide professional development opportunities that account for the role disability might play in one’s career journey.

For corporations, the Early Career Talent Accelerator helps provide companies with 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.

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

2025 Program Timeline

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

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

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.

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

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

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.