Expanding Conversations about Accessibility to Include Faculty

Cali Anicha; Cecilia Aragon; Canan Bilen-Green; Brianna Blaser; Larry Napoleon

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Conference: 2023 Collaborative Network for Computing and Engineering Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: New Orleans , Louisiana
Publication Date: February 26, 2023
Start Date: February 26, 2023
End Date: February 28, 2023
Conference Session: Session 7 - Track 1: Expanding Conversations about Accessibility to Include Faculty
Tagged Topics: Diversity and CoNECD Paper Sessions
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44792
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44792
Download Count: 87

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Canan Bilen-Green is Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement at North Dakota State University. She is also Dale Hogoboom Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and PI of the ADVANCE Program at North Dakota State University. She holds Ph.D. an

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Brianna Blaser University of Washington orcid.org/0000-0002-0008-1643

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Brianna Blaser is a counselor/coordinator at the DO-IT Center at the University of Washington where she works with the AccessEngineering program. She earned a bachelors degree in math and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in women studies

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Larry Napoleon Jr. North Dakota State University

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Abstract

Keywords: Disability, Faculty

The past decade has witnessed increasing interest in attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including expanding the participation of women and racial-ethnic minorities and, in fewer cases, to people with disabilities. Despite the availability of a rich collection of published research on women faculty that has increasingly used an intersectional lens, these conversations rarely meaningfully address strategies to make faculty careers more welcoming and accessible to women with disabilities. Further, as the professoriate ages, there will be an increasing number of faculty with disabilities and the pandemic has a disproportionate impact on many faculty with disabilities. In the coming years, there will also be faculty who have acquired disabilities as the result of long covid.

This paper reviews existing research and practice reported in the literature about faculty with disabilities as well as reports of people with disabilities and other stakeholders in an online community and offers practical promising practices for increasing the participation of this marginalized and underserved group in STEM fields. The paper begins with a discussion of structural barriers that make faculty careers inaccessible and unwelcoming to people with disabilities and presents two approaches to access: accommodations and universal design. Both approaches have a role in the process of increasing the participation of people with disabilities in faculty careers. Given the relatively sparse literature on the topic, we encourage researchers addressing faculty careers to ask about disability in their work and to analyze disability-related data to increase our understanding of the issues impacting this population. Moreover, we offer departments and institutions strategies that they can take related to institutional and departmental policies related to accommodation requests, hiring practices, faculty evaluation, and other relevant areas; departmental culture; physical environments; collaboration and communication, and information technology. We conclude with recommendations to researchers and practitioners regarding the development of practices that will lead to increased engagement and success of women in faculty positions in STEM.

Citation
Format

Anicha, C., & Aragon, C., & Bilen-Green, C., & Blaser, B., & Napoleon, L. (2023, February), Expanding Conversations about Accessibility to Include Faculty Paper presented at 2023 Collaborative Network for Computing and Engineering Diversity (CoNECD), New Orleans , Louisiana. 10.18260/1-2--44792

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Keywords: Disability, Faculty

The past decade has witnessed increasing interest in attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including expanding the participation of women and racial-ethnic minorities and, in fewer cases, to people with disabilities. Despite the availability of a rich collection of published research on women faculty that has increasingly used an intersectional lens, these conversations rarely meaningfully address strategies to make faculty careers more welcoming and accessible to women with disabilities. Further, as the professoriate ages, there will be an increasing number of faculty with disabilities and the pandemic has a disproportionate impact on many faculty with disabilities. In the coming years, there will also be faculty who have acquired disabilities as the result of long covid.

This paper reviews existing research and practice reported in the literature about faculty with disabilities as well as reports of people with disabilities and other stakeholders in an online community and offers practical promising practices for increasing the participation of this marginalized and underserved group in STEM fields. The paper begins with a discussion of structural barriers that make faculty careers inaccessible and unwelcoming to people with disabilities and presents two approaches to access: accommodations and universal design. Both approaches have a role in the process of increasing the participation of people with disabilities in faculty careers. Given the relatively sparse literature on the topic, we encourage researchers addressing faculty careers to ask about disability in their work and to analyze disability-related data to increase our understanding of the issues impacting this population. Moreover, we offer departments and institutions strategies that they can take related to institutional and departmental policies related to accommodation requests, hiring practices, faculty evaluation, and other relevant areas; departmental culture; physical environments; collaboration and communication, and information technology. We conclude with recommendations to researchers and practitioners regarding the development of practices that will lead to increased engagement and success of women in faculty positions in STEM.
AU  - Cali Anicha PhD
AU  - Cecilia Aragon
AU  - Canan Bilen-Green
AU  - Brianna Blaser
AU  - Larry Napoleon Jr.
CY  - New Orleans , Louisiana
DA  - 2023/02/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Expanding Conversations about Accessibility to Include Faculty
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/44792
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--44792
ER  -