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In this paper, we present a case study with a disabled physics student to draw attention to his experiences in the physics community, and the barriers and supports that he experienced as he advanced through his physics career. Using a methodology of narrative analysis, we identify themes and genres within the stories told by the participant. Narratives are often created to explain the unexpected and to solve a problem. In the physics community, disabled students find their "differences" (i.e., disability/impairments) are often positioned as unexpected and a problem to be solved. We use narrative analysis to humanize disabled physics students and to highlight their lived experiences of progressing through the physics community over their perceived deviation from the physics "norm." From this, we create resources for physics mentors to increase their knowledge of disabled physics students' experiences and how to support accessibility and inclusion in the physics community.
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Physics and ableism: One disabled physicist’s perspective
In this article, I argue that mainstream physics epistemologies and physics teaching and learning practices reify ableism, augmenting the marginalization of disabled and chronically ill people in physics. I make this claim from my standpoint as a physicist who became disabled and chronically ill when I was 2 years old.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1760761
- PAR ID:
- 10414717
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Physics Teacher
- Volume:
- 61
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0031-921X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 156 to 157
- 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
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0141424
