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Access Needs: Centering Students and Disrupting Ableist Norms in STEM

This essay describes the concept of access needs as a tool for improving accessibility in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education broadly, from the classroom, to research group meetings, to professional conferences. The normalization of stating access needs and creating ac...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Reinholz, Daniel L., Ridgway, Samantha W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8715803/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34460293
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-01-0017
Descripción
Sumario:This essay describes the concept of access needs as a tool for improving accessibility in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education broadly, from the classroom, to research group meetings, to professional conferences. The normalization of stating access needs and creating access check-ins is a regular practice used in disability justice activist circles, but it has not yet been normalized in STEM education spaces. Just as normalizing the use of pronouns has been an important step for supporting gender justice, we argue that normalizing access talk is an important step for advancing disability justice in STEM fields. Moreover, we argue that all individuals have access needs, regardless of whether they are disabled or nondisabled. We provide concrete suggestions and techniques that STEM educators can use today.