Disrupting Ableism and Advancing STEM: Promoting the Success of People with Disabilities in the STEM Workforce: Proceedings of a Workshop Series (2024)
Chapter: 9 Reflections and Next Steps
9
Reflections and Next Steps
IDEAS FOR ACTION ACROSS ALL WORKSHOP DAYS
Throughout the workshop series, committee members, panelists, and audience members made calls for change and suggestions for broad strategies and next steps in disrupting ableism in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including the following:
- Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science, suggested a consensus study on these topics to be undertaken by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
- In her closing remarks, Bonnielin Swenor, chair of the planning committee and director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, said there was an urgent need for funding for programming and training to combat ableism and to support disabled people in STEM.
- In her paper presentation, Jacquelyn Chini, associate professor of physics at the University of Central Florida, made several suggestions, including adopting disability status metrics across wider datasets, such as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS, and the Survey of Graduate Students and Post-docs, or CSS, as well as a call for qualitative data about disabled people’s experience in STEM (see Chapter 3).
- Sam Catherine Johnston and Luis Pérez, both from the postsecondary and workforce development office at CAST, offered a variety of ideas for curriculum and field research changes based on universal design (see Chapter 4).
- Kate Mittendorf, senior staff scientist at Vanderbilt University, made several suggestions in their paper presentation, including publicizing accommodation processes to all employees when they are introduced to the workplace and a workforce training model that moves away from the model of “access as gift” (see Chapter 7).
- Jae Kennedy, community and behavioral health professor at Washington State University, called for the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the “federal research enterprise” to lead the way on destigmatizing disability and encouraging disclosure, even when accommodations are not needed or there is no identified discrimination.
- Wanda Díaz-Merced, an astronomer at the European Gravitational Observatory, said that the wider scientific community needed to make a dedicated investment to moving to multisensorial practices across scientific fields.
U.S. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION REFLECTIONS AND SOLICITATION
Christopher Atchison, program director for the Directorate for STEM Education at NSF and professor of geology and science education at the University of Cincinnati, opened the reflections and next steps dialogue by pointing out that the discussion and communities coming together at the workshop was already having an effect on federal agencies, on professional societies, and throughout academia. After the first day of discussions, many participants had told him they were more motivated than overwhelmed.
“I hope you still feel the same, but regardless, if you’re overwhelmed or you’re motivated, I still want you to pick the one thing, what is the one thing you learned from this convening, and do your best to continue pushing for that one thing,” he said, whether it is in the classroom, in policy development, in training, or elsewhere. He noted that much of what has been said during the workshop series has been shared for decades; it is time for bringing that to a wider audience. “I want you all to think about how can we reach and connect with those who are not here.”
