Professor Jennifer Leigh has co-authored a White Paper raising awareness of the needs of disabled people working in STEMM areas (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) and the actions that can be taken to support them.
Towards a fully inclusive environment for disabled people in STEMM: A NADSN White Paper was produced by the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN) STEMM Action Group to make STEMM careers more accessible to disabled people. As co-lead for the Action Group, Reader in the School of Social Sciences, Professor Leigh, was the lead author.
The paper highlights the benefits of an inclusive STEMM environment and provides short, medium, and long-term recommendations on how organisations and funders can address systemic ableism in STEMM. These range from short-term practical actions such as improving work-based training around disability, neurodivergence, chronic illness and intersectionality, to medium and long-term cultural change towards more inclusive research cultures and ecosystems.
The paper is a response to the underrepresentation of disabled people in STEMM. The proportion of the working age population thought to have a condition that would be recognised as a disability under the 2010 Equality Act is estimated at 30%, yet less than 1% of applications for UKRI research funding are from researchers disclosing a disability. When they do apply, disabled researchers are less likely to be successful, and when they are, are awarded less than half the amount compared to non-disabled researchers.
The STEMM Action Group intend to improve the experiences of disabled people in STEMM by promoting understanding and transformative change amongst funders, learned societies, and higher education and research institutions.
Dr Leigh said: ‘It’s more important than ever to address the lack of inclusion in STEMM. We need to stop thinking of disability as something that only impacts students, because the reality is it can affect anyone. Anyone can acquire a disability at any age, and the barriers and obstacles due to disability are intersectional and compound. Our recommendations will help ensure that institutions and funders do not exclude talented people from opportunities to build successful research careers simply because of a disability, and will give us the best chance of tackling global challenges.’
Dr Leigh was recently included in the Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100 in recognition of her recognition of her work on disability and ableism in academia. She is on the Board for the Women in Academia Support Network, the Women in Supramolecular Chemistry Network, and co-chairs Kent’s Staff Disability Network. Her extensive research on marginalisation in science has been showcased in two documentaries focussing on Disability and Inclusion and Women in Africa
The National Association for Disabled Staff Networks STEMM Action Group is formed of people with experience of disability, chronic illness, and/or neurodivergence, who work in and around the STEMM disciplines. Since its inception in 2020, members have worked to develop recommendations for funders, institutions, and disciplines to address barriers faced by those who are marginalised due to disability.