Careers Without Barriers: Building Practitioner Readiness for Disability-Inclusive Career Development

Careers Without Barriers: Building Practitioner Readiness for Disability-Inclusive Career Development is a one-year project, funded by CERIC and led by the Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE), a national association of community-based employment service providers and their provincial/ territorial associations, employers and interestholders working towards the employment inclusion of persons with disability. This project will be developed in collaboration with the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF). 

This project directly responds to a documented and field-identified gap in practitioner knowledge building on CASE’s established history of capacity development in the supported employment sector. The result will be a practical, accessible and immediately usable resource that strengthens the ability of career development professionals across Canada to support jobseekers who experience disability in securing and sustaining meaningful employment.  

Drawing on CASE’s existing curriculum and sector expertise, the project will develop a self-directed learning opportunity with content covering six interconnected topic areas:  

•          Foundations of disability-inclusive practice 
•          Strengths-based approaches to career development with clients experiencing disability 
•          Accessible communication in career development practices 
•          Navigating disability disclosure 
•          Understanding workplace accommodation 
•          Engaging employers on behalf of clients with disabilities 

During the project year, the course will be made freely available to 300 learners and will be available in English and French. The curriculum will be self-paced and hosted on CASE’s learning management system, with a practitioner toolkit designed to extend learning into day-to-day practice. Concurrent with the curriculum launch, CASE will establish an online community of practice open to all program completers, providing a sustained space for peer dialogue, resource sharing and collective problem solving that extends the impact of the curriculum beyond course completion.  

Accessible through CASE’s learning portal, it is expected that learners will be able to self-register for Careers Without Barriers beginning in March 2027. 

By meeting practitioners where they are, offering free access, building on existing trusted CASE curriculum, and connecting learners to one another, this project removes barriers to uptake and ensures the resource reaches those who need it most. The result will be a national learning resource that fills a critical and long-standing gap in the career development field, strengthening professional practice and improving service quality for jobseekers experiencing disability across Canada.