- Brianna Blaser
- Associate Director
- AccessADVANCE
- https://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/advance
- University of Washington
- Cecilia Aragon
- http://CeciliaAragonAuthor.com/
- Professor
- AccessADVANCE
- https://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/advance
- University of Washington
- Canan Bilen-Green
- https://www.ndsu.edu/facultyaffairs/contact/
- Vice Provost
- AccessADVANCE
- https://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/advance
- North Dakota State University
- Sheryl Burgstahler
- https://sites.uw.edu/sherylb/
- Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
- AccessADVANCE
- https://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/advance
- University of Washington
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Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
AccessADVANCE aims to increase the participation and advancement of individuals who identify as women with disabilities in academic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. We are interested in strategies to increase the recruitment and retention of women STEM faculty with disabilities as well as ways that we can institutionalize flexibility that was gained during the pandemic as we prepare for a post-pandemic world.
If you are interested in engaging with us further,
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
Are you aware of challenges women with disabilities might face in pursuing STEM academic careers on your campus? We would love to have your input.
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Research Scientist
I really enjoyed seeing first-hand experiences in your video. That made the video particularly powerful.
Invisible disabilities are particularly challenging for people to understand, so I am interested in hearing more about participants' experiences with the project and how it's impacted their careers.
Thanks for your work! So necessary.
Janelle Johnson
Chelsea LeNoble
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
You're absolutely right about invisible disabilities. We know that a large proportion of disabilities are invisible and these are often the hardest disabilities for employers and colleagues to understand.
Our work is just starting - in future years, we'll be able to share information about how our work has impacted women!
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Research Scientist
I see that the project is looking for systemic change, which is quite a hard nut to crack. Do you have examples of the things that you hope to see by the end of the project?
Also, I am intrigued by the use of universal design for the project. Can you give examples of how you are using universal design for systemic change?
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
We have collected input from female faculty members in STEM to hear their stories and suggestions and continue conversations within our leadership team and community of practice. We have drafted a document that shares some of the issues female faculty members in STEM fields have presented and proposed improvements to departmental policies and practices that might lead to systemic change. Some things that are sure to end up in the publication are making sure that the application/interview procedures for faculty positions are accessible to applicants with disabilities and that candidates are told how to request accommodations in the interview process; ensuring that faculty members know where and how to request assistive technology and other accommodations for their research, teaching, service and other aspects of their work; and addressing issues related to overall departmental culture. We encourage input from all stakeholder groups!
Marcia Gumpertz
This is a fantastic project! Things are changing, but it is still hard for people with invisible disabilities to disclose their disability and let anyone know that they need anything. Also, university disability services offices often are equipped really to serve students and may not have much to offer faculty.
Janelle Johnson
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
I find it interesting that the models for disability services differ from one university to the other. At some, it's all one office; at others, there's one for students and employees. At some universities, graduate students have to work with both offices because they are both a student and an RA/TA. The time spent navigating these systems can be lengthy. And, as you point out, it's important for these offices to understand the needs of the different populations that they are working with.
Stephen Alkins
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
Thank you each for your stories and contributions to your respective fields. It is interesting that more students with disabilities, and more female students more specifically, have been pursuing Ph.D. programming, which suggests that student engagement is improving, however, has the national academy provided any guidelines for transition support to the faculty level or retention practices for STEM departments?
I'd also be curious how the intersection of your other identities has also affected (improved or hindered) your experiences as a faculty. Even in disability services there can be bias across other identities (veteran status, race, ethnicity, etc.).
Janelle Johnson
Chelsea LeNoble
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
So far, there hasn't been a lot of work done specifically related to faculty with disabilities. We have been collecting resources we find on our AccessADVANCE website. (And welcome suggestions if folks know of things we're missing!).
As we have more conversations about accessibility and STEM, it's important to take an intersectional lens. At the student level, for example, there is research that shows students from a higher SES are more likely to receive accommodations for learning disabilities. For a book chapter that we wrote ("Perspectives of women with disabilities in computing" in Cracking the digital ceiling: Women in computing around the world) many women said they felt their disabilities had had a larger impact on their careers than their gender because of issues around inaccessibility.
Chelsea LeNoble
Chelsea LeNoble
Just like Nuria commented, I also love the way this video invites women with disabilities to share their experiences. Your website also offers fantastic resources for providing more support to women with disabilities in academia. Thank you so much for this important work.
One thing I'm curious about is whether you've considered showing departments how to identify common forms of ableism that they might not realize are operating in the work environment. Perhaps forms of support might be even more effective if ableist practices are simultaneously addressed? I imagine that many of the barriers to disabled women in academia are things that abled folks have not realized exist. Might there be any low-hanging fruit in terms of changes or quick fixes that can be made to reduce ableist practices in academic settings? For instance, I'm thinking of the trend in online learning where instructors are encouraged to post video or audio feedback in lieu of written feedback on student assignments. I imagine the challenges this poses to those with disabilities is not fully (if at all) considered.
Janelle Johnson
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
Thanks, Chelsea. We love to help identify low hanging fruit to make small changes that can have significant impact. We don't have a final draft yet of a document specifically addressing accessibility for faculty with disabilities, but that is something we are working on. A couple related resources we do have are Accessibility and Universal Design of Online Meetings and Equal Access: Universal Design of Engineering Departments.
Chelsea LeNoble
Overtoun Jenda
Assistant Provost and Professor of Mathematics
Thank you so much Team for doing this. Excellent work as usual. Is there a site that highlights the research work that they do? Do we have a mechanism whereby we can have them mentor our junior faculty and students with disabilities in STEM nationwide?
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
Hi, Overtoun. Most of our work in this project is focused on institutional transformation rather than direct interventions. As in a lot of work, we like to highlight the experiences of people with disabilities in order to build understanding of the accessibility issues involved. A mentoring system like you describe would be great for future work.
Bianca Alvarado
Opening the space to have conversations around women with disabilities will allow people to be seen and heard especially when there are services, products, and programs designed for those needs that most of the time serve the general public also.
I invite you to provide feedback to our video: https://stemforall2021.videohall.com/presentati...
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
Absolutely!
Lindsay Palmer
I love this video and feel seen by this work! I was wondering if you are familiar or follow any feminist work in Crip Theory? I'd love to learn more about your theoretical approach and perspective. Thank you all for elevating the voices of women with disabilities in STEM!
Stacey Sexton
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Research Scientist
This sounds really interesting. I would love to learn more about the intersection about Crip Theory and feminism. Are there any references you can share with us?
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
Although I haven't read deeply in crip theory, it is something I would like to explore more of. Our work is based on the social model of disability and universal design. Over the years in our other work, we have found that there is very little conversation about disability in conversations related to broadening participation in STEM and even just starting with very basic information raising awareness about the experiences of people with disabilities, accessibility, accommodations, and universal design can go a long way in creating change.
Lindsay Palmer
I believe that this work aligns well with Crip Theory! I would check out Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's work Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept (see reference below) as I think that would be a great place to start give your approach. Other great feminist crip theorists are Alison Kafer, Margaret Price, and Melanie Yergeau. I think your work is really thoughtful and I have enjoyed learning about it!
GARLAND‐THOMSON, R. (2011), Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept. Hypatia, 26: 591-609. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01206.x
Stacey Sexton
Janelle Johnson
This is wonderful work. My work is focused in the K-16 world, and I hope you all will be able to illuminate some of the pathways for folks with diverse abilities to successfully get to higher education. There are many systemic changes that need to happen at every point along the way.
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
You're absolutely right about the changes that need to happen along the way. On other projects, we've focused on students and the transition to careers. You can find related projects and resources on the DO-IT website. This project is new ground in working specifically at faculty careers.
Janelle Johnson
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
We are using universal design as a framework for proactive and inclusive design, but consulting research in women's studies and disability studies as well.
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
Absolutely!
Lisette Torres-Gerald
I recommend Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer. I would also check out the work and activism of Sami Schalk, Sins Invalid, and Mia Mingus.
Stacey Sexton
Janelle Johnson
Brianna Blaser
Lisette Torres-Gerald
I recommend Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer. I would also check out the work and activism of Sami Schalk, Sins Invalid, and Mia Mingus.
Brianna Blaser
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
Lisette, Thanks for the references!
Sheryl, AccessADVANCE PI
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
Research Scientist
Hi Lisette! Those sound great! Thanks for sharing! Looking at Kafer's book on Google Books.
Ning Wang
Very meaningful! Thanks for sharing! Wonderful works!
Elena Ortiz
Thank you for sharing those stories, I also feel seen! I love the idea of offering accommodations to job candidates, I wish I’d thought of it
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
Well, if you DO think of something else, please pass it along to us!
Hala Schepmann
I am hopeful that your efforts will produce a compilation of methods and policies that each of us can implement at our institutions!
Chih-Ing Lim
Thank you for sharing such important work. My work focuses on including children with disabilities (birth to five) in STEM learning and we know that support at every step of the way is critical for children to develop a positive STEM identity, for adults and peers to have high expectations. I can also see how your efforts can also help others of us increase the participation and advancement of individuals with disabilities in other disciplines as well.
Rosa Olivera
Very wonderful video to watch, and very brave for all of you to speak out.
My main question as a student is how can we contribute and be an advocate for our fellow professors who have a visible/non-visible disability?
Brianna Blaser
Associate Director, AccessADVANCE and AccessComputing
Disability needs to be more fully integrated into conversations and efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion. One way for students to get involved is to ask questions at their institution regarding accessibility. Give feedback about things like captioning videos, asking for accommodations when people register for an event, and when disability is missing from these efforts.
Chih Ing Lim
Janelle Johnson
Janelle Johnson
We need to really tackle the issue from an institutional and societal lens. There is so much unexamined bias as you know.
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
I agree with you completely!
Sheryl Burgstahler
Director, DO-IT and Accessible Technology Services
That is definitely one of our objectives!