Science suffers when STEM students with disabilities leave the field

Posted on July 23, 2019

Different chemistry beakers full of chemicals in the colors of the rainbow
“Hundreds of tweets posted with the hashtag #WhyDisabledPeopleDropOut illustrate what can happen when talented students don’t receive the accommodations that they need,” Bayer and Marks say. Image: four different beakers on a table contain red, orange, yellow, and green liquids, respectively. [Photo: flickr]
Having a disability has made Gabi Serrato Marks and Skylar Bayer better scientists, according to a recent Scientific American article by Marks and Bayer that was published last week. The women note that even though creativity and the ability to think differently are valuable skills for any scientist to have, scientific research is rarely designed to accommodate scientists with medical conditions or disabilities. Marks and Bayer, a postdoc and PhD candidate, respectively, say academic institutions need to provide more institutional supports to scientists with disabilities if they don’t want to lose out on promising young talent.

Read Marks and Bayer’s piece in Scientific American online by clicking here.

For Filipinos with disabilities, climate change and natural disasters are a dangerous mix

Posted on August 7, 2018
For almost three decades, Bacita De La Rosa has been unable to walk due to a spinal cord injury she suffered after she was struck by a vehicle. She has since been dependent upon her family for help with many basic needs and cannot leave her home without assistance — all of which has proven to be very difficult when the inevitable tropical storm comes. Credit: Jason Strother/PRI

PRI’s Jason Strother examines how Typhoon Haiyan impacted the disability community in the Philippine city of Tacloban
Read his story on climate change, natural disaster and disability here

An IDEA for Tomorrow

Posted on March 13, 2015

Three high school seniors from Phoenix, Arizona, took home first place in their division for C-SPAN’s Student Cam 2015 documentary competition. “An IDEA for Tomorrow,” produced by Severiano Romo, Alexis Rainery and Molly Kerwick of the Metropolitan Arts Institute, showcases the single piece of federal legislation governing the education of children with disabilities– IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

News21 ‘Back Home’

Posted on August 30, 2013

VA Workers Rewarded for Avoiding Difficult Disability Claims

Despite a growing backlog of disability claims and appeals, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave workers millions in bonuses through a system that values quantity over quality, according to an investigative report from the Carnegie-Knight News21 program.

VA claims processors said they were encouraged to avoid complex claims that needed extra work to verify veterans’ injuries and disabilities in order to meet performance standards. As of September 2012, veterans injured on duty waited more than 429 days on average for their claims to be handled while those appealing decisions often waited for years to receive help.