Register for this event here.
Through a series of interactive online sessions led by the NPA, the summit seeks to identify barriers – and find paths forward – to greater accessibility and inclusion across the postdoctoral communities. Areas of focus include accessibility and inclusion for individuals with (in)visible disabilities and neurodiverse individuals that allow them to thrive in their postdoctoral work and beyond. Roundtable discussions are currently planned on a variety of topics of interest to the postdoctoral communities featuring postdoctoral researchers and invited representatives from government, industry, nonprofits, and academia.
This summit is designed to shine a spotlight on the barriers that can inhibit full accessibility within the postdoctoral community as well as pathways to increase accessibility and inclusion. The summit amplifies messaging from the lived experiences of neurodiverse individuals or people with disabilities that many in the postdoctoral space may be unfamiliar with. It is the hope of the NPA and its allies that these conversations will lead to further discussions about specific issues and actions toward achieving justice and equity for everyone in the postdoctoral communities.
The Summit will include American Sign Language (ASL) translation services throughout the event.
Panel 1: Welcome & Intro; Neurodiversity: Barriers, Equity & Inclusion
1:00 p.m. - 1:55 p.m. ET, Friday, November 8
This session focuses on lived experiences and lessons learned as neurodivergent individuals as well as suggestions for institutions, postdocs, and their postdoctoral support communities to increase accessibility and inclusion for neurodiverse stakeholders. The session will start with brief introductions from the panelists before diving deeper into topics such as:
- Introduction to the key concepts and terminology of neurodiversity.
- Diverse experiences within neurodivergent individuals.
- Potential barriers faced by neurodiverse postdocs in terms of accessibility.
- Suggestions for making the workplace more accessible, inclusive, and equitable for neurodivergent individuals.
Moderator: Angela Fowler, Ph.D., director of postdoctoral affairs, School of Medicine, Indiana University
Speaker: David Caudel, Ph.D., associate director, The First Center for Autism and Innovation, Vanderbilt University; AJ Link, J.D., founding president, National Disabled Law Students Association (NDLSA) and National Disabled Legal Professionals Association (NDLPA); Ashley Shew, Ph. D., associate professor, Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Virginia Tech; Holden Thorp, Ph.D., editor in chief, Science, professor of chemistry and medicine, George Washington University
Panel 2: Understanding Barriers for Postdocs with Disabilities
2:00 p.m. - 2:55 p.m. ET, Friday, November 8
In this session, we will examine the range of obstacles and inequities that individuals with disabilities face as they serve as postdocs or enter academic positions. We will consider barriers to obtaining positions and discuss strategies colleagues, mentors, department chairs, institutional leaders, and people with disabilities themselves can use to thrive in them. This discussion will address the following questions:
- How widely recognized and understood are the barriers that people with disabilities face in academia?
- How can we improve understanding of these barriers by peers and leaders?
- What policies or processes at institutions often inhibit disability inclusion and accessibility?
- What progress is being made to address these inequities?
- What challenges do people from the disability community experience when engaging in scholarship related to disability, and how might these challenges be overcome?
This presentation will begin with the panelists sharing their own experiences with the academic journey as disabled scholars and will then turn to broader trends and lessons learned.
Moderator: Logan Gin, Ph.D., assistant director, STEM, Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University
Speakers: Bonnie Swenor, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor, The Endowed Professorship of Disability Health and Justice, director, Johns Hopkins University Disability Health Research Center; Rupa Valdez, Ph.D., associate professor, systems and information engineering, associate professor, public health sciences, University of Virginia
Panel 3: Pathways to Greater Accessibility and Inclusion for Postdocs with Disabilities
3:00 p.m. - 3:55 p.m. ET, Friday, November 8
Kate Mittendorf, Ph.D., is a disabled* academic working in the field of genomics. Their presentation will explore approaches to disability liberation in academia and beyond. They will provide a historical overview of models of disability, specifically examining their impact on the treatment of disability within academia and related fields. They will explore the conflict of current approaches to disability accommodation with disability liberation, specifically examining ableism within academic culture. They then will discuss the necessity of incorporating the embodied expertise of disabled persons and disability communities into approaches to disability liberation. Finally, they will provide readily actionable strategies for reimagining disability access in academia and related fields.
In a discussion led by Linda Yates, Ph.D., we will explore institutional and cultural misconceptions regarding postdocs who manage disabilities in the academic environment. The discussion will be framed around the biases, barriers and limitations imposed by ableist ideologies and their restrictive learning environments. We will discuss disability disclosure, institutional support, and some critical conversations that may become necessary when postdocs who manage disabilities work in institutions challenged by narrow, standardized views of ability.
*Mittendorf uses identity-first language to describe themselves but recognizes that subsets of the disability community and the individuals within them may have different language preferences. They will attempt to honor this difference through use of mixed person-first and identity-first language when speaking about the disability community as a whole. Language models will be briefly covered.
Moderator: Melissa Wynn, Ph.D., program officer, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Speakers: Kate Mittendorf, Ph.D., research assistant professor, medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Lisa Yates, Ph.D., director, Disability Support Services, Moreno Valley College
Panel 4: How I Can Navigate Disclosure & Thrive as a Postdoctoral Scientist with Disabilities
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET, Friday, November 8
Please note this panel requires separate registration. REGISTER HERE
This one-hour online workshop will have participants engage in a set of short activities (e.g. reflections, breakout groups) to engage in a practical and safe environment for self-discovery guided by two facilitators/experts. In the United States, disability status is often overlooked, even though people with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM workforce by a factor of three compared to factors of 1.5 and 1.3 for women and underrepresented minorities, respectively (NCSES, 2023). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is twice as high for people with disabilities as it is for those without a disability. Often, individuals and/or groups with disabilities face a mix of challenges and opportunities.
Common frustrations emerge from requesting accommodations, managing long processes and, at times, receiving denials. Opportunities come from finding peers and/or a safe community to support disabled individuals to achieve professional and personal goals, ideally bringing your whole self. This session will serve as an introduction to disability inclusion for those looking to learn more and help postdoctoral researchers/professionals with disabilities and find connections in the disability community.
Ultimately, the event will support taking a first step to find a new perspective about a situation or a recent event to continue to move forward in what is a critical transition among postdoctoral scientists, moving from temporary appointments into stable jobs. The workshop will be an inclusive virtual event with automatic captions and event agenda/materials.
Speakers: Aixa Alemán-Díaz, Ph.D., social scientist, senior program manager, American Geophysical Union, Diversity Officer, NPA; Brianna Blaser, Ph.D., director and co-PI, AccessComputing, University of Washington