understanding was further underscored in an ASEE Distinguished Lecturesession that I organized with Matt King, Facebook’s lead accessibility engineer. As he told meabout his transition into his blindness, he rhetorically asked me, “What do you do with thesighted blind kid?” His simple question validated my own feelings and experiences of trying tomake sense of my new identity. I often feel compelled to tell my story when asked about my research because of theirintertwined and reciprocal nature. As part of a community that is simultaneously sighted andblind (as reflected in the group’s emerging use of the hashtag: #itscomplicated), I recognize thatthe seemingly simple labels of blind or disabled are highly nuanced and context-dependent
the national-level by positively impacting early-career women in academicengineering. LATTICE is a collaborative project between the University ofWashington, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and North Carolina State University. 1I serve as evaluator of LATTICE, on a team of women working to broadenparticipation and accelerate the success of women faculty in engineering through aprogram called LATTICE. Diversity and inclusion are at the core of our worktogether and are reflected in our LATTICE team as well as in how we do ourwork together. We come from a range of social identities, including personaland professional experiences with career development programs
comes out or begins transitioning between the ages of 18 and 24[14]. This itself is a process with additional social and material support needs which canovershadow the demands of the classroom.Resiliency and social support Resiliency refers to the processes used to overcome challenging situations and adapt tothe demands of life, with particular attention on the unique strategies employed by marginalizedgroups [16, 17]. Transgender and gender nonconforming students are often written about throughdeficit framing which define their lives in terms of their trauma or perceived academic failure[13, 18]. In contrast, resilience is “reflected by achievement in career development, happiness,relationships, and physical well-being in the presence
describing that theclassroom did not provide the same exposure, Byron stated, “In the lab, you have to do a lot of 13outside research to find out what you need to do. No one is telling you what to do step by step.It's a very creative [space]. Inside the classroom, the same creativity isn't necessarily used.”Shortly after, he reflected on the effect that the project process had on his ability to design andmake, stating, “Basically, it taught me how to break things down into parts in my head, and thatmakes it so much simpler.” Due to his ability to apply the concepts learned in class to the maker-projects he was simultaneously working on, Bryan considered
about the Black experience, reflecting the unfairexpectation that Black students serve as experts in discussions of culture and ethnicity [20].As our study focuses on students who attended PWIs, future research should explore theexperiences of Black student veterans who attend historically black colleges and universities(HBCUs) as prior research indicates that such institutions provide a supportive environment forBlack students in general [19] and BSVs in particular [37]. Further research will also exploreother aspects of BSVE identity, such as family relationships and religion not included here.AcknowledgementThis work is supported by the National Science Foundation through Awards 1428512 and1428646. The opinions herein are solely the authors