DISABLED AND NEURODIVERGENT PERCEPTION, IDENTITY, AND COMMUNITY IN GEOSCIENCE: A CALL TO ACTION

Disabled and neurodivergent people are among the many groups who continue to be marginalized by science and academia. Geoscience is no exception, with micro- and macroagressions, deficit bias, and exclusionary culture creating unwelcoming environments for disabled and neurodivergent people in many classroom, field, and lab arenas. Despite making up 20% of the global population, disabled people are half as likely to achieve educational or socioeconomic capital than non-disabled peers. Many more do not identify as disabled and/or neurodivergent due to stigma, fear, and lack of medicalized diagnosis. Disabled and neurodivergent people exist within a societal system which seeks to medicalize, "reasonably accommodate", and cure, rather than build authentic and welcoming environments for disabled identity, culture, and community to flourish. In this introductory talk, we provide the conceptual framework for the topical session, Disabled and Neurodivergent Perception, Identity, and Community in Geoscience, underscored by Critical Disability Theory and the social or affirmation models of disability. The scientific and academic communities still largely utilize the medical or individual models of disability, which ought to be interrogated. We share these introductory remarks to set the tone for the topical session within these disabled and neurodivergent identity frameworks. It is our hope that this topical session can serve as one of many calls to action, to take a discerning gaze inward at our own systems of oppression within geoscience and academia. By doing so, we can continue to disrupt ableism and multiple related forms of othering that mark the academic systems we currently operate within, and create a safer and more welcoming space for disabled and neurodivergent people in geoscience.