FROM CLASSROOM TO CAREER: BUILDING A CULTURE OF ACCESS FOR GEOSCIENTISTS WITH DISABILITIES

The perception of disability as a barrier to a successful career within academia as a whole and geosciences in particular, discourages many people with disabilities from starting or staying in geoscience degree programs. In addition, those disabled individuals who do finish a degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEMM) discipline have a significantly higher unemployment and underemployed rates than their non-disabled peers with similar credentials. Today’s early career geoscientists, born after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, represent a new demographic, sometimes referred to as the ‘ADA generation’. The ADA generation doesn’t just hope for accessible learning and work conditions, they expect it. Further, as more individuals are living with disabilities acquired through accident, age, or illness, fostering a workspace that supports access and contributions from disabled individuals improves diversity and also creates a more inclusive workplace that benefits everyone. There is also a compelling need to examine the biases and racism within the Disabled identity. While access barriers impact us all, racism compounds the biases faced by disabled BIPOC individuals, yet little is known (outside of anecdotal evidence) about how that impacts students and career professionals in the geosciences. Until we can change the prevailing culture of inaccessibility and normalize the support and success of disabled geoscientists, we will continue to exclude many qualified and capable individuals from geoscience careers.

Here we discuss a new initiative to identify and characterize the experiences of people with disabilities in geoscience career paths, both the significant barriers and successes, by soliciting input from - and building community with - disabled geoscientists from diverse backgrounds, across all career stages, and work sectors. This information will be used to strategize specific initiatives that could address those barriers. By drawing on the diverse academic experiences and life paths of disabled geoscientists, we can transform anecdotes and individual advocacy into cultural change throughout the geosciences community.