EAGER: Exploring Customized STEM Employment Approaches for People with Disabilities

This project is conducting early-stage, exploratory research to investigate customized employment approaches for restructuring STEM workplace settings and employment practices to increase access and inclusion for postsecondary students with disabilities. The work reflects that of an EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award. The University of Cincinnati is partnering with Siemens Corporation to address two research questions: 1) Can customized employment approaches be used to create jobs that meet both the needs of STEM employers and individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID)? and 2) What tools best support employers and disability specialists in identifying STEM positions? Using a multiple case study approach, the researchers are gathering and analyzing data from employer and employee interviews, workplace observations, and employee writing samples. The project includes an advisory board with individuals with ID, family members of people with ID, and STEM employers. There is an external evaluator to provide feedback to the investigators and to assess the success of the research. This research was created in response to the Workplace Equity for Persons with Disabilities in STEM and STEM Education solicitation (NSF 23-593). The solicitation activities support fundamental, applied, and translational research that advances knowledge and practice about diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible STEM and STEM education workplaces and postsecondary training environments for persons with disabilities. The solicitation states that EAGER proposals explore work in its early stages on untested but potentially transformative research ideas or approaches. EAGER projects must focus on one or more of the solicitation's three research themes and this award focuses on the solicitation’s first research theme: “studying barriers and solutions to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in STEM workplaces and postsecondary training settings.” The research findings that are being generated from this project inform how STEM industry employers structure job descriptions to create more inclusive opportunities for technically skilled workers with disabilities. There is potential for the project activities and the results to be used by other investigators to conduct fundamental and/or applied research to further study customized employment for persons with disabilities in STEM. The project team is presenting the research at professional conferences and using social media podcasting. This Workplace Equity for Persons with Disabilities in STEM and STEM Education award was funded by the NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Initiative, which seeks to motivate and accelerate collaborative efforts to advance and sustain systemic change that broadens participation in STEM at scale. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.