The confidence to ask real disabled users better questions, directly, instead of guessing or delegating it away.
Founding Cohort
What happens when you finally ask the accessibility question you've been avoiding?
Find out in the first Untapped Exchange Cohort on September 17.
Attend four sessions in a small group with paid disabled partners who work alongside you to build accessible experiences together from end-to-end.
Co-designing alongside people with lived experience isn't just about catching errors, it’s about putting accessibility at the very forefront of decision-making before a single line of code or design blueprint is finalized.
Disability Advocate Edward Mitchell is a Lived Experience Collaborator for Untapped Exchange, and Executive Director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Tennessee
What you'll get out of it
A truer picture of how people actually navigate with assistive technology and how it influences their decisions.
The instinct to catch what blocks access early, while it's still cheap to change.
Shared language and evidence to prioritize accessibility as real work, not a last minute checkbox.
Why "Untapped"
UX and Product practitioners have untapped skills they have not used on real accessibility problems. Disabled partners have untapped voices that get consulted too late or not at all. Underneath both, there is untapped potential left on the table. 1, 2 Accessibility gaps are quietly adding barriers to your users and hidden and surprise costs to your product and business.
Prepare to work
You have a chance to pick from a list of sample projects based on real problems and decisions across industries. Over four sessions, you work the business / design problem alongside disabled collaborators. You'll leave having already asked the questions you've been avoiding, gain tools to apply the answers, and have a clear picture of what to do next.
Over four evenings you will explore a project with real impact and gain honest feedback along the way.
What's Covered
How to make the business case for your users
How to ask the right thing, and what to do when you don't
How do you find your users who have disabilities
How do you do the work without adding a new project
How to run an accessible user discovery or research
Dates & Logistics
Thursdays, September 17 and 24, and October 1 and 8
6:00-8:00pm Central, Virtual
Four sessions, two hours each
Link sent after registration. All four sessions required.
The Investment
$160 for the founding cohort
This covers paying our disabled collaborators for their time across all four sessions. It might not be what the program will cost once it's proven out, but it's the right price for this founding cohort. We want to make sure the people who are doing the work are paid for it.
FAQ
Who should attend?
Designers, researchers, engineers, and product managers learning side by side on a project that connects to the real work in your day to day. Everyone leaves able to ask better questions of real disabled users.
What if I can't make one of the four sessions?
This round is built for people who can attend all four. Since the work builds session to session, you may miss something critical. If your schedule can't hold four Thursdays in Central time, wait for the next cohort.
Who are the lived experience collaborators?
Disabled professionals who are paid partners working alongside you on your project for the entire cohort.
Is this confidential?
Yes. What gets shared about the business you are in stays in the room. You'll get a short confidentiality acknowledgment during session one.
What kind of feedback am I going to be asked to give?
This founding cohort is priced and built to get feedback. Along the way we'll ask what's working, what's not, and what the full program should look like once it launches.
What happens after I pay?
You'll get a confirmation email with the session link, a short pre-work ask, and what to bring to session one.
Is there a refund if I need to drop out?
Refund details are outlined in our Terms and Conditions, linked in the footer.
Four sessions solving real problems you can bring back to your work.
Reserve your seat, $160You'll be taken to a secure external site to complete payment. Once it clears, you'll get a confirmation email with everything you need for session one. If the cohort fills before you register, you'll be offered a spot on the waitlist for the next one.