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Career resources for students with disabilities

Students with disabilities will face the same challenges as all job seekers, and might also have specific questions or issues that arise related to disabilities. On this page is information about advising and resources specifically relevant to Virginia Tech students with disabilities and your career development journey.

Advising for Virginia Tech students

Uncertainty about whether you have a disability

Disclosing a disability to an employer

  • There are many things to consider when deciding if/when to disclose a disability to an employer. You might consider discussing the options with your Services for Students with Disabilities counselor, and/or a Career and Professional Development (CPD) advisor.

More in-depth conversations about job search and disability

Jen Heinold, assistant director in Career and Professional Development, is a career advisor, Certified Autism Specialist through IBCCCES, and serves as liaison to Services for Students with Disabilities.

Resources

Career and Professional Development does not endorse or recommend any fee-based services or products on websites we list and link.

U.S. federal government resources for persons with disabilities:

  • Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA); ada.gov
    U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
    The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities from discrimination in all areas of life, including employment.
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; eeoc.gov
    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.
    Extensive information for employees and job applicants.
  • Workforce Recruitment Program; wrp.gov/wrp
    The Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) connects federal and private sector employers to eligible students and recent graduates with disabilities, and serves as the primary pipeline for bringing new hires into the federal government. We provide additional information about this program on our federal job search resources page > applying, under "Students with disabilities."

Job and internship resources

Some employers specifically seek out students with disabilities to hire into internship and job roles. Similarly, some websites exist solely to assist the job seeker who has a disability. The following are some resources that might be helpful in your job or internship search.