Beyond good intentions: Overcoming barriers for researchers with a disability

People with mental and physical disabilities make up over 27% of the U.S. population, yet they are severely underrepresented in both psychological science and the larger scientific workforce. There are many reasons for this gap, including pervasive barriers such as ableism (i.e., the belief that people with disabilities are flawed and less valuable than nondisabled people), bias, and lack of accessible accommodations. Whenever any group is underrepresented in science, the inevitable consequences are fewer good ideas, less discussion, and a narrowed perspective.

People are considered to have a disability if they have a lasting physical, mental, or medical impairment that significantly impacts their ability to perform daily activities. This includes a wide range of physical and mental conditions, including multiple sclerosis, blindness, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, diabetes, and Crohn’s disease. 

People with physical or mental disabilities can be crucial and heralded contributors and leaders of research teams. Notable researchers with disabilities include Albert Einstein (dyslexia), Nobel Prize winner Dorothy Hodgkin (blindness), and Stephen Hawking (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

Below are some strategies that psychology researchers with disabilities, their colleagues and supervisors, and institutions and organizations can take to help everyone overcome these barriers, successfully conduct research, and advance professionally.

[Related: Learn about APA's Accessibility and Inclusion Maturity Model]

Find community

“When I was a graduate student, I didn’t know a single other graduate student or faculty who identified as disabled,” said Kathleen Bogart, PhD, professor of psychology at Oregon State University.

This lack of community inspired Bogart, who has Moebius syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes facial paralysis and limited eye movement, to launch the Disability and Advocacy Research Network with Lisa Aspinwall and Afrooz Ghadimi in 2021. A volunteer-led collective, DARN facilitates community building, mentoring, professional development, and sharing resources about how to make workplaces more accessible for psychology researchers who have a disability. There are now 500 members worldwide.

“I started DARN to create a pathway for the next generation to have better community and mentorship than I experienced,” said Bogart, who mentors up to 20 students each year through the network. “It’s exactly the kind of thing that I would’ve wanted when I was in school.”

Hear from Bogart and others in this APA Essential Science Conversation: Barriers for Individuals with Disabilities in the Scientific Workforce

Ask for an accommodation

Depending on their situation, the brains or bodies of people with disabilities may work a bit different, said Erin Luquette, a PsyD psychology student at Roosevelt University with neurodivergence. It’s OK to ask for a different work environment or a different way to get work completed. Early on in graduate school Luquette, who has difficulty keeping track of ideas verbally, worked out with their doctoral advisor a system for breaking their dissertation out into visual flashcards. “I’m not trying to reduce my workload,” they said. “I just want to come to an equal playing field to bring you every part of myself that I know I can be.”

Be easy on yourself

Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, PhD, was diagnosed with autism as an adult and also suffers from fibromyalgia. When she looks back on her academic training, she recalls intense periods of burnout, often brought on by stress-related illness that can accompany autism such as migraine and irritable bowel syndrome, along with the outsize effort she put into masking her autism symptoms. She advises students and early career professionals with disabilities to take a long view. “ If you don’t feel good, take time off,” said Bonura, a contributing faculty member at Walden University’s School of Psychology. “Your life and your career are going to be long. You don’t have to always be achieving and make yourself sick in the process.”

Let individuals decide what they need

“It’s important to talk with the individual about how they want their needs met,” said Kara Ayers, PhD, an associate professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “I know it sounds basic, but I think we often stumble due to well-meaning intentions.”

Ayers, who has osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder that causes bones to break easily and necessitates the use of a wheelchair, recalls a time when she suffered a serious fracture, and her well-intentioned colleagues suggested she take short-term disability for three months.

“My approach, though, when I’m recovering, is to get myself stabilized and off pain medicines, which is usually only a few days, but after that, it’s best for my mental and even physical health to return to life as usual,” Ayers said. “And, so, these two approaches were at odds, which is why it’s so important we listen to the individual and put aside our own assumptions about what we would do in their situation.”

Normalize asking for what you need to thrive

Bonura said that even people without any disabilities have personal needs or things that stress them out. “Why can’t we all say, ‘These are the working environments I like’ and just be open about what works for us and what doesn’t?” she asks. “If we all model self-care, maybe that will help the younger professionals and the grad students in our workspaces take care of themselves.”

Cut back on mandatory socializing

“There are a lot of social expectations in academia. Informal dinners, frequent get-togethers, and open-door policies can become quite exhausting,” said Chris Dabbs, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Valparaiso University with a late-in-life autism diagnosis. “I definitely feel disadvantaged more than my nonautistic peers just because of the way I operate socially.”

Dabbs advocates for making meetings virtual when possible and making appropriate accommodations when in-person meetings are required. “Harsh lighting, sitting with strangers, and general overstimulation drains my cognitive reserves, and then I’m missing out on the intellectual conversations happening around me.”

Be loud and clear with your support

Dabbs, who’s open about his diagnosis, would like to see his colleagues be loud and clear about their interest and support of specific disabilities. “Ask me about my experience. Or read a book and do some research,” he said. “We’re all academics. The one thing we’re good at is learning about stuff.”

Luquette encourages disability advocates to fly a flag or post a sign of support. “It helps show students they have a safe space they can come to and talk,” they said.

Make it easier for people to get what they need

Graduate programs and academic departments can remove the burden individuals might feel seeking out accommodations by including a discussion on the topic during the onboarding of all new faculty and students. Programs should also engage in continual resource-sharing because disabilities can be acquired at any time. “You can’t tell who’s disabled just by looking at them,” Bogart said. “So, just do this for everyone. At a minimum, you’re raising awareness, which is always a good thing.”

“And if you’re not getting what you’ve requested, don’t be afraid to bring in the experts,” Luquette said. Most universities now have dedicated disability resource centers that can intervene if accommodations are not being implemented properly.

Offer flexible work arrangements

Bonura would like to see academic institutions be open to alternatives to full-time employment for tenure-track faculty positions to accommodate researchers who cannot push their brains and bodies as far as and as long as nondisabled people. “I’m autistic. I have two autistic children. I get migraines frequently and I need more sleep than most people. I could not do a full-time salaried position at this point in my life, but I still have a lot of experience, knowledge, and ideas,” Bonura said. “It’s so common to see disabled academics cobble together part-time gigs. It would be great to see universities and research centers offer halftime or flexible time salaried positions with benefits.”

Provide low barrier opportunities to participate in scientific meetings

Traveling cross-country to attend conferences can be tricky for people with physical mobility issues. Even getting around within large scientific meetings can be daunting, said Angelina Leary, a clinical psychology PhD student at the University of Central Florida, who has multiple sclerosis. “Conferences can be very active, so ensuring materials are accessible for everyone is key,” Leary said.

Join the Disability Mentoring Program, as a mentor or mentee

APA’s Disability Mentoring Program (DMP) has promoted inclusion and supported individuals with disabilities in psychology for over two decades. By connecting mentees with experienced mentors for up to nine months, the program aims to provide guidance, support, and a sense of belonging that can make all the difference in navigating the challenges of academia and professional life.

Mentors can help mentees get a formal diagnosis, discuss how to disclose disabilities to coworkers, and learn how to ask for accommodations. Mentors can also call on their prior experience to help mentees overcome ableism.

“Do they want to roleplay ways to address supervisor ableism? Let’s do it,” said Dabbs, who has mentored three students through DMP. “Do they want advice for which pre-doc internships to avoid because of reported ableism at those institutions? I can give them that. Do they want to vent about being tokenized in their internship because they’re the only disabled person? We can do that, too.”

Leary, who recently experienced ableism during an internship interview, is grateful for her DMP mentor. “It’s been amazing having conversations with someone in the field who understands a lot of the things I’m experiencing,” Leary said.

Photo credits:

• Kara Ayers: Heather Elizabeth Studios 
• Kimberlee Bethany Bonura: Sandra Bethany 
• Kathleen Bogart: Beau Bogart 
• Chris Dabbs: James Richards 
• Angelina Leary: Gabby Darling Photography 
• Erin Luquette: Erin Luquette