This study explores the landscape of professional development (PD) in social justice and diversity within rehabilitation counselor education. The research highlights disparities in vocational rehabilitation services, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community. Using a qualitative Directed Content Analysis approach, the researchers examined titles and abstracts from NCRE conference programs, revealing that 30.14% of sessions addressed social justice or multicultural competence. The study emphasizes the need to differentiate social justice from multicultural competence in education, address the diverse content related to social justice in PD for rehabilitation counselors, and evolve disability representation to be more socially just.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the disparities in vocational rehabilitation services for marginalized communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community, and recognize the challenges they face in accessing satisfactory services.
• Gain insight into the content landscape of professional development programs in rehabilitation counseling, focusing on the differentiation between social justice and multicultural competence, and identify areas for improvement in diversity-related content.
• Explore the preliminary findings of a content analysis of National Council on Rehabilitation Education (NCRE) conference programs, including the distribution of sessions related to social justice, multicultural competence, and specific cultural groups, to inform future efforts in rehabilitation counselor education.