Abstract:All students deserve access to effective, equitable physics education. Postsecondary faculty have been shown to be unprepared to support students with disabilities in their classes, and popular, research-based introductory physics curricula do not adequately plan for variations in learners’ needs, abilities, and interests. It is urgent to address this disparity because students with disabilities are enrolling in postsecondary education at increasing rates and enroll in STEM degree programs at steady rates. Spe… Show more
“…Even with the sizeable representation of disabled students in postsecondary STEM, research has shown that popular, research-based curricular materials are not designed with learner variation in mind [9]. There are also barriers in the structure of STEM courses, for example, distracting room layouts in SCALE-UP courses and lack of access to course materials outside of class [10][11][12]. Additionally, STEM faculty on average hold more negative beliefs about disability than their peers in other academic disciplines [13][14][15][16].…”
Disability is an often-overlooked aspect of diversity. Recent research has indicated that there are barriers to access and participation for disabled students inherent in the design of physics courses. To help counteract these barriers, universities are required to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled students. However, not all students use the accommodations they have access to because of social factors (e.g., disability stigma), and others do not have access to the professional diagnosis often required to access accommodations. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of students who identify with a disability/impairment who were taking an emergency remote teaching (ERT) physics course in Fall 2020 to inform policies about providing access to students in future remote and face-to-face courses. In this paper, we present the prevalence and types of impairments disabled students in physics courses reported, their reported accommodation usage, and ethical considerations of this work. Overall, we find that disabled students represent a sizeable group in physics courses, and there are positive and negative reasons students did not use or request accommodations.
“…Even with the sizeable representation of disabled students in postsecondary STEM, research has shown that popular, research-based curricular materials are not designed with learner variation in mind [9]. There are also barriers in the structure of STEM courses, for example, distracting room layouts in SCALE-UP courses and lack of access to course materials outside of class [10][11][12]. Additionally, STEM faculty on average hold more negative beliefs about disability than their peers in other academic disciplines [13][14][15][16].…”
Disability is an often-overlooked aspect of diversity. Recent research has indicated that there are barriers to access and participation for disabled students inherent in the design of physics courses. To help counteract these barriers, universities are required to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled students. However, not all students use the accommodations they have access to because of social factors (e.g., disability stigma), and others do not have access to the professional diagnosis often required to access accommodations. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of students who identify with a disability/impairment who were taking an emergency remote teaching (ERT) physics course in Fall 2020 to inform policies about providing access to students in future remote and face-to-face courses. In this paper, we present the prevalence and types of impairments disabled students in physics courses reported, their reported accommodation usage, and ethical considerations of this work. Overall, we find that disabled students represent a sizeable group in physics courses, and there are positive and negative reasons students did not use or request accommodations.
Disability is an often-overlooked aspect of diversity. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 15% of the world's population identifies as disabled, yet there is a dearth of knowledge and literature about supporting disabled learners in postsecondary physics courses. The goal of this chapter is to synthesize and critique the extant literature about how instructors can teach physics courses in ways to support disabled leaners. Through a systematic literature review, 66 sources were identified which discuss physics, teaching, and disability. In the extant literature, 51 sources are written for practitioners and 15 sources contain novel research. Overall, the literature includes suggestions and solutions to respond to access needs and begins to explore experiences of disabled students and the role of instructors and higher education administrators in supporting the variety of students' needs, abilities, and interests. Findings and implications are disaggregated by suggestions for practice and for education researchers.
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