293-4 Disabled Voices: Stories of Accessibility at the Intersection of Disability and Identity

Session: Deliver the Message: Harness Diverse Media and Divergent Methods to Describe and Depict Geoscience Information (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

Disabled students can experience a variety of accessibility outcomes when characteristics of their disabilities interact with identities of differing degrees of social privilege, potentially aiding them in navigating these spaces or compounding the difficulties they face in higher education spaces. The experiences of 39 students who identify as disabled and are majoring in a science discipline were investigated through a nationwide survey. Students were asked to describe the ways in which their social identities (1) afforded them privilege and/or (2) created an additional barrier in having their accessibility needs met. These written responses were open coded using MAXQDA and analyzed to understand code patterns and share the stories of these students. The three most common codes are those describing experiences associated with race, gender, and access to wealth. Students described race and gender as a privilege or barrier that was situational, individual, and/or contextual, while access to wealth was always considered to be beneficial for meeting their accessibility needs (and lack of financial resources/support was a barrier to accessibility). Other common supports for accessibility include feeling like people listened to them or that they had the power to advocate for themselves, access to quality medical care, and mental health support. Common barriers to accessibility included feeling like they were not believed or taken seriously, tension with cultural norms/practices, lack of financial resources, and self-confidence or facing mental health challenges. The most common overlapping codes (six instances of co-coded responses) are for identifying as a woman/being female/femme-presenting and not being believed and/or taken seriously. We also highlight that while some experiences are highly associated with being a support or barrier (e.g., access to wealth is described as a support and lack of financial resources is described as a barrier), closely-held identities may not predictably explain how to meet a student’s accessibility needs or whether a student’s accessibility needs are being met. This supports the body of work in accessible practices that suggests that ensuring accessibility needs cannot be done in a one-size-fits-all approach; intersecting identities and life experiences necessitate individualized approaches for making science accessible to more students.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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