Full-participation of students with physical disabilities in science and engineering laboratories

Abstract

Given these findings, further research (e.g., surveys or interviews) should be conducted to identify more details to obtain more substantial information on the barriers that may prevent SwD-P from fully participating in S&E instructional laboratories. Implications for Rehabilitation Students with disabilities remain underrepresented going into STEM careers. A need exist to help uncover barriers students with disabilities encounter in STEM laboratory. Environments. Accommodations and strategies that facilitate participation in STEM laboratory environments are promising for students with disabilities.

Gains and Losses in Virtual Mentorship: A Descriptive Case Study of Undergraduate Mentees and Graduate Mentors in STEM Research during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The abrupt transition away from in-person research meant that many of the undergraduate mentee respondents felt "lost" and stopped being contacted by their mentors. While the mentors' intentions may have been to lower mentees' workload in a trying time, a failure to communicate that could be detrimental, particularly among individuals with disabilities or other underrepresented minorities who may have prior negative experiences in which they were assigned fewer active roles and tasks (Jeannis et al, 2018). Even among mentees who remained in contact with their mentors, many missed the informal relationships and communications they had with the other members of their lab communities.…”

“…The impact of COVID-19 can also inform practices employed by STEM disciplines more broadly. This pandemic forced traditionally wet lab fields to adapt to virtual work spaces; the methods described here and other technologies may be helpful in reducing the barriers to entry for individuals who have been disproportionately excluded from STEM, such as those with disabilities, both during and after COVID-19 (Gregg et al, 2016;Jones, 2016;Jeannis et al, 2018;Lillywhite and Wolbring, 2019). In this way, virtual research and mentorship may demonstrate an opportunity to make STEM more accessible and inclusive, which can greatly benefit the field as well as individuals (Smith-Doerr et al, 2017;Kendricks et al, 2019;Menzel et al, 2019;Asai, 2020).…”

“…Taken together, these studies demonstrate that virtual mentoring can provide many of the benefits of face-to-face mentoring, but the methods used in the virtual mentoring session and the training of mentors are important for the beneficial effects to be realized (Gregg et al, 2016;Jeannis et al, 2018;Menzel et al, 2019). This is critical because of the demonstrated role that research mentorship plays for both the undergraduate student mentee and the graduate student mentor.…”

“…In contrast, negative research or mentoring experiences can have lasting effects on students' mental health, self-confidence, and/or careers. Students who have negative mentoring experiences can feel stressed and excluded from the scientific community and may perceive that their contributions are not valued (Dolan and Johnson, 2009;Jeannis et al, 2018;Menzel et al, 2019). Graduate students also benefit from mentoring more novice students in research activities as they gain assistance in their own research efforts and learn teaching and management skills that are valuable for careers in both academia and industry (Dolan and Johnson, 2009;Limeri, Asif, and Dolan, 2019).…”

Peculiarities of Training Engineering Students with Disabilities

“…One of the top-discussed matters when considering the problems of students with health limitations is learning environment accessibility. For STEM careers, the issue of laboratory accessibility is reasonably represented as one of the sharpest [22]. Analysis of various scientific literature on disabled students' performance in science and engineering laboratories has revealed that many researchers [22,23] consider the lack of an adapted environment the key obstacle to practicing.…”