A National Academies Consensus Study Examining Workplace Barriers, Solutions, and Policies for STEM and STEM Education Professionals and Postsecondary Students with Disabilities

The National Academies are conducting a consensus study with the purpose of identifying and examining STEM and STEM Education workplace and postsecondary training setting barriers, solutions, and policies that influence career development and advancement for persons with disabilities. The goal of the project is to create, publish, and disseminate a study report that includes evidence-based recommendations for changes needed in both academic and non-academic STEM workplaces and postsecondary training settings, such as, but not limited to, private industry, non-profit organizations, government, academia, research laboratories, and PreK-12 STEM classrooms. The reduced inclusion of people with disabilities in the STEM and STEM Education workforce is a missed opportunity to realize the full potential and talent of the entire U.S. population. Given the critical importance of STEM professionals, scientists, researchers, and PreK-12 and postsecondary STEM educators in our country, opportunities to increase knowledge about workplace and training setting barriers, solutions, and policies facing disabled people—and hence the engagement, retention, and career advancement of people with disabilities in STEM and STEM Education—is essential for building, retaining, and advancing a robust STEM and STEM Education workforce. The National Academies is engaging an expert committee for this consensus study activity, and providing the committee with data, evidence, and commissioned works. Both the committee and the National Academies are developing high-priority actionable recommendations for researchers, educators, policymakers, and STEM and STEM Education employers, which is being published and disseminated to a broad audience. 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 Division of Graduate Education’s EDU CORE Research program, the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings’ Discovery Research PreK-12 program, and Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program. 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.