Collaborative Research: Barriers and Solutions for Physics Graduate Students and Faculty with Disabilities in Training and Workplace Settings

The University of Connecticut, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are conducting a research study of the barriers and solutions that physics graduate students and faculty experience in non-traditional post-secondary training and workplace settings. The lack of full inclusion of people with disabilities in the STEM workforce is a missed opportunity to realize the full potential and talent of the entire U.S. population. Opportunities to advance knowledge about physics postsecondary training setting and workplace barriers and solutions for faculty and graduate students with disabilities will lead to increasing the engagement, academic career retention, and career advancement of faculty and students with disabilities in STEM. Such success is essential for building and advancing a robust U.S. STEM workforce. The research team is engaging with an expert advisory board, an objective evaluator, a postdoctoral research scholar, and graduate students to contribute to the project work. The research includes the collection, analyses, and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data that are informed by robust theoretical frameworks and conceptual models. Findings will be share with the general public as well as researchers, educators, and administrators. This award has been made in response to the NSF solicitation “Workplace Equity for Persons with Disabilities in STEM and STEM Education” (NSF 23-593). The project is funded by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences’ Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s Education Core Research (ECR), the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program (LSAMP), the Division of Undergraduate Education’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE), and the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s Eddie Bernice Johnson Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES). 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.