Academic pipeline for scientists with disabilities
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T
he business model for organizational diversity states that “diverse” organizations have a competitive advantage over non-“diverse organizations. These advantages arise from increased creativity,1 problem solving,2,3 decision making,4 and overall quality of results,5 among other observed outcomes. Within academia, increasing diversity benefits performance and persistence of students by reducing the deleterious effects of solo status (being the only representative of a social group)/tokenism (member of a minority social group in a given organization) and stereotype threat. People with disabilities are an underrepresented group in materials science and, more broadly, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, inclusion of persons with disabilities is often left out in the drive to increase diversity. Efforts to increase diversity in PhD-level leadership positions have not resulted in significant gains among people who identify as having a disability. This article presents the status of people with disabilities in the STEM pipeline, examines reasons why there has been little progress in increasing doctorate degree attainment for people with disabilities in STEM, and discusses possible ways to get people with disabilities to become more active in advanced STEM careers. While the data presented here come solely from the United States and lack granularity to pinpoint the status of persons with disabilities in materials science and engineering, the concepts addressed are transferable to both materials science and engineering, in particular, and to other countries in general.
Degree attainment in STEM fields
Accurate numbers for people with disabilities are difficult to obtain and vary with the survey methodology, how disability is defined, and how the questions are phrased. The US Census Bureau 2011–2015 American Community Survey estimates 5.8% of the noninstitutionalized population of US citizens and
permanent residents between the ages of 18 and 34 years have a disability.6 The US Census Bureau 2010 Survey of Income and Program Participation estimates that 12.2% of the noninstitutionalized US population between ages 6 and 14 years have a disability,7 and 16.6% of those 21 to 64 years working age in the US population have a disability.8 At the same time, approximately 9% of K–12 students are enrolled in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs.9 The IDEA data are perhaps the most reliable and informative metric because they hinge on the actual percentage of students who receive classroom accommodations for a disability; “disability” is functionally defined as an impairment that requires accommodations for the student to reach his/her educational potential. Table I lists the distribution of specific measures of disabilities among grade-school-aged children and highlights the difficulty in quantifying the number of people with a disability.8 It is unclear how a person with an amputated arm, severe depression, or anxiety would fit in this rubric. This distribution wo
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