Approaching accessibility from the outside in
RSC Disability and Accessibility Specialist Emrys Travis discusses how taking a broad look at accessibility and inclusion can help address many of the barriers faced by individuals who need support.
By Emrys Travis
Over almost three years in my role as RSC Disability and Accessibility Specialist, we’ve developed a significant evidence base to understand the barriers facing disabled chemists with all kinds of experience: mobility and sensory impairments, neurodivergence, mental health issues, and chronic illness and other health conditions. We’re proud to have nourished a thriving community of lived and professional expertise, and immensely grateful for the generosity of all those who have contributed. This year during Disability History Month and the week of the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities we launched the RSC disability web hub, to collect and share this knowledge, and help equip our community to combat the exclusion of disabled chemists.
One of our most notable findings was about self-identification. Just 4% of RSC members said they self-identified as a disabled person, but when asked if they face barriers or limitations relating to a disability or health condition, this number more than doubled to 10%. This gives important context for any quantitative data analysis – and the numbers get even trickier because disability is a porous category: many people move in and out of it across their lives (cancer, for example, is legally classed as a disability from the moment of diagnosis). The slipperiness of quantitative disability data, and the diversity of disabled experiences, underline why qualitative data is so important in understanding how to tackle underrepresentation and inaccessibility.
The gap between the 4% and the 10% also shows the importance of ensuring our work on disability and accessibility supports all those who might need and benefit from it – not just those who self-identify. So how can we go about this? The impulse often arises to close the gap by creating a better, more comprehensive definition of disability – scientists, after all, love a definition. But the barriers to self-identification are complex: stigma, imposter syndrome, and privacy concerns are bound up with unclarity and lack of awareness of what can 'count' as a disability. There is no "open sesame". We’re committed to encouraging societal steps to overcome the stigma, demonstrating that accessibility in STEM is an important topic and "disability" is not a dirty word. But alongside asserting a positive understanding of disability, we also need to be making concrete material interventions to make workplaces, study environments and communities as welcoming as possible to everyone.
Disabled people are legally entitled to workplace adjustments in the UK and many other countries. But if an adjustment is only available for those who ask for it – those who know how and who to ask, who have the confidence and the energy, the good relationship with their line manager, the medical evidence – that’s not an accessible workplace. For every individually-granted adjustment, there might be many more employees without the resources to ask for or be granted it – they may not even know it would benefit them. This impacts negatively on both productivity and wellbeing.
The solution lies not in chasing a perfect definition of disability, but in approaching disability and accessibility work from the outside in, rather than the inside out. Disabled activist groups developed the ‘social model’ of disability to reframe their exclusion as a problem with society – not a natural result of their impairment or difference. Humans are naturally diverse; the issue arises when environments are not designed with that diversity in mind.
Direct discrimination is a significant barrier faced by disabled chemists. But understanding accessibility and the social model shows us that, even if everyone were suddenly freed of their ableist bias, the problem would not be solved tomorrow. Individual attitudes are a significant factor in whether a lift gets built or a company has a generous sick pay policy, but they do not by themselves build that lift or institute that policy. Eliminating the effects of unconscious bias will help support an inclusive recruitment process – but so will sending the interview questions out a day or more in advance, for example.
Tackling the stigma is imperative – but we can’t stop there. It’s not just about treating disabled people 'equally' – it’s about prioritising, understanding, and taking material action to meet their access needs.
Visit our disability hub to discover resources for individuals and employers