People with disabilities have been historically underrepresented in scientific fields as a result of systemic barriers and a “leaky pipeline” through academia. This has been especially true in field science, where a lack of resources and limited access to adaptive equipment have made accommodating disabilities in field settings seem daunting. This paper introduces the Equipment Repositories for Accessibility (ERA) model as a blueprint for universities to implement and improve the accessibility of field research and field-based courses. It first provides an overview of the history of disability in science and how systemic barriers contribute to underrepresentation and reduced access to field science. It then outlines the steps for the establishment and long-term management of the ERA model as a means of overcoming these barriers and provides a brief overview of the types of adaptive equipment available for a diverse range of accessibility needs. The scientific community benefits from the inclusion of diverse individuals and addressing barriers to accessibility is a necessary step in creating a truly intersectional academic community, which acknowledges the deeply interconnected nature of disability with other identities including race, gender, and sexuality.
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Anticipate and Adjust: Cultivating Access in Human-Centered Methods
Methods are fundamental to doing research and can directly impact who is included in scientific advances. Given accessibility research's increasing popularity and pervasive barriers to conducting and participating in research experienced by people with disabilities, it is critical to ask how methods are made accessible. Yet papers rarely describe their methods in detail. This paper reports on 17 interviews with accessibility experts about how they include both facilitators and participants with disabilities in popular user research methods. Our findings offer strategies for anticipating access needs while remaining flexible and responsive to unexpected access barriers. We emphasize the importance of considering accessibility at all stages of the research process, and contextualize access work in recent disability and accessibility literature. We explore how technology or processes could reflect a norm of accessibility. Finally, we discuss how various needs intersect and conflict and offer a practical structure for planning accessible research.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10354105
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- CHI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 18
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3501882
