This project will investigate how higher education structures enable or disable diverse STEM students with dis/abilities. Students with dis/abilities are underrepresented in college and STEM fields, and they are also less likely to graduate, yet the reasons are not fully understood. Some research suggests that students with dis/abilities may seek informal accommodations, but little is known about online learning as an informal accommodation, which other informal accommodations students may pursue, what barriers students seeking informal accommodations may face, and how this may vary by subgroup. Initial pilot results suggest that commonly used terminology employed by colleges does not reflect how many students with dis/abilities self-identify, which may contribute to under-identification and under-accommodation. Yet, this has also not yet been well-explored in relation to college access. This project will be the first to systematically investigate these gaps in our knowledge through large-scale, mixed-method research. Outcomes of this research will pave the way for: better identifying students with dis/abilities in higher education and STEM fields; language use for publicizing accommodations that better reflects how students with dis/abilities actually identify; and research-based recommendations for institutional policies and practices that provide better access to both formal and informal accommodations for STEM students in college.

This project aims to provide essential evidence, currently missing from the empirical literature, about: 1) how to more accurately identify STEM students with dis/abilities in college; 2) what kinds of informal accommodations STEM students with dis/abilities currently pursue outside of formal structures, including 2a) whether they use course medium (e.g., online or in-person courses) as informal accommodation; 3) what macro-level institutional structures enable or disable students with dis/abilities from obtaining formal or informal accommodations; and 4) how these patterns vary by subgroup (i.e., condition; intersectionality). Utilizing asset framing that integrates the Social Model of Disability, Universal Design, and Body Capital theories, this large-scale, mixed-method project will utilize survey and interview protocols, as well as institutional research data, to document the diverse ways that students with dis/abilities already succeed in STEM in college. The goal of this investigation is to provide critical knowledge about how institutions can better adapt to students with dis/abilities, rather than expecting students with dis/abilities to adapt to existing ablest higher education and STEM cultures. This project has the potential to reveal macro-level barriers for STEM students with dis/abilities that can be targeted for change to increase the number of students with dis/abilities that pursue and complete STEM degrees, and as a byproduct, increase the employment of persons with dis/abilities in STEM workplaces.