We began this month of Accessibility Actions by sharing stats on the number of disabled undergrads, grad students, & faculty. We used polls to explore lived experiences of grad students. Why does the number of disabled people drop off the higher in the ranks you go? #NDEAM 1/ Bar chart with the title: Number of disabled people in the a
The fact that few disabled grad students are enrolled may well start at the interview! Here, we show that folks on the job market or applying to grad schools overwhelmingly had inaccessible interviews. 2/
#DisabilityTwitter #DisInGradSchool Pie chart with the question: First, as a disabled person, ha
This demonstrates a culture that does not often think of disability. Most folks said that, while their uni has an LGBTQ center and a multicultural center, they don’t have a disability cultural center. This sends the message that disability is not something to be celebrated. 3/ Alt text: Bar chart with the question: Does your university Bar chart with the question: Does your university have a MulBar chart with the question: Does your university have an LG
Our respondents also told us that stigma around disability and mental health issues is pervasive. Most students shared that they were not comfortable telling their advisor about mental health care needs. 4/ Bar chart with the question: Do you feel comfortable telling
Further, respondents shared that they did not feel comfortable telling most of their cohort or classmates about their mental health needs. The pool of who disabled grad students feel they can talk to is narrow… 5/ Bar chart with the question: Do you feel comfortable telling
It’s no surprise that grad students might feel uncomfortable about discussing mental health care - most respondents said they could get mental health care but that it was hard. Difficulty finding care is another indicator that you might not belong in this campus community. 6/ Bar chart with the question: If you’ve needed mental healt
Nearly all respondents shared they had a limited number of on-campus therapy visits. Most have 4 or more visits, and are sometimes able to get more. Care limits are concerning given that mental health concerns are more common in grad students than the general population! 7/ Bar chart with the question: Many campus counseling centers Alt text: Bar chart with the question: If you reach your max
In terms of formal accommodations, disabled folks who received accommodations in both undergrad and grad school remarked that their undergrad better met their accommodation needs (Very few respondents). Perhaps the “system” is more set up to expect undergrad accommodations? 8/ Bar chart with the question: For those with accommodations i
Respondents also shared that while most had their accommodations approved, many only had some of what they believed they needed approved. And often (though not always), it is non-disabled people deciding what accommodations are truly “needed” or “reasonable”. 9/ Bar chart with the question: If you applied for accommodatio
Further, most respondents had a professor fail to provide accommodations and when this happened, it required Months of advocating for and stressing over the accommodation. This is a lot of labor On Top Of the typical amount of work expected of grad students. 10/ Pie chart with the question: 10/16: If the disability officeBar chart with the question: If an accommodation was not pro
For grad students who served as teaching assistants (TAs), most respondents remarked that they needed but did not receive accommodations in this role (Very few respondents). As a grad student, you can be in an awkward middle ground of both student and employee… 11/ Bar chart with the question: If you have been a teaching ass
On top of all of this, grad students’ health insurance is overwhelmingly tied to student enrollment status, meaning if they take time away from the program, they will lose their health insurance. 12/ Bar chart with the question: If you’re a graduate student,
Those who considered taking a leave of absence and factored healthcare cost into their decision overwhelmingly stayed without taking leave. Forced decisions like this have the potential to worsen the health challenges that necessitated considering a leave in the first place! 13/ Bar chart with the question: If you have ever considered tak
Half of respondents shared that they spend 10-25% of income on healthcare costs. Given that grad students only make between 20 and 30k on average, this can put them in a difficult position. For grad students are already rent burdened, this leaves little for emergency funds! 14/ Bar chart with the question: Using a rough estimate, how muc
Finally, more than half of grad students said they needed to work an extra job to pay for healthcare, but more than half of those students who needed an extra job were not allowed to take one, presumably due to their programs. 15/ Bar chart with the question:  In addition to your graduate w
Given all of this information, disabled grad students, generally, are stressed, financially stretched, not receiving mental healthcare easily, not able to share their struggles freely, and are not receiving all of the necessary accommodations. #NDEAM #DisInGradSchool 16/
Further, career development offices don’t often provide training specifically for disabled job seekers, one of many factors that make it harder for disabled grad students to get jobs as faculty members. 17/ Bar chart with the question: Career development offices ofte
And we can see a potential impact of this lack of targeted career preparation when many disabled grad students say that they do not feel prepared for the job market. Cumulatively, lack of targeted support and ableism in the academy might contribute to our next finding… 18/ Bar chart with the question: Do you, as a disabled student,
Most respondents also shared that they have not knowingly had a disabled professor. It’s not surprising that most faculty are either not disabled or hide their disability, possibly related to their own experiences with the lack of accessibility in grad school. 19/ Pie chart with the question: 10/16: Have you ever had a disa
Faculty and grad students are often expected to attend conferences to demonstrate their activity in their field and be competitive for hiring or promotion, but most respondents shared that they have avoided attending an event due to inaccessibility. 20/ Pie chart with the question: Have you ever decided not to at
Even when respondents requested an accommodation for an event, it was either outright denied or “forgotten” about (Very few respondents).This suggests that conference organizers cannot be bothered to accommodate disabled people. 21/ Pie chart with the question: Have you ever requested an accoPie chart with the question: Have you ever requested an acco
Given this thread, the academy has a lot of work to do when it comes to accommodating disabled people. One way that you can help is today’s Call to Action: share this thread and tag your institution! #NDEAM #DisInGradSchool @AcademicChatter #DisabilityTwitter End/
(This tweet needs a correction - it's not more than half of students who needed an extra job were not allowed. It's *some students*. Our apologies.)

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More from @DisInGradSchool

28 Oct
With COVID, many people and jobs are more online than ever before. If your website, Zoom meetings, even Tweets aren’t accessible, then a sizable percentage of the population can’t navigate them. Here are some resources to make your digital content more #accessible! 1/13
#NDEAM
@access_guide_ wrote a guide on writing image descriptions to help you understand what’s important to include when you’re posting that cute dog photo. tinyurl.com/ImageDesc. @ImageAltText can be tagged to check if an image on Twitter has alt text! 2/13
If you’re low on spoons and/or don’t have funding to pay someone to write image descriptions for a professional website/presentation (for example), this Facebook community can provide free, crowdsourced image descriptions facebook.com/groups/1376494… 3/13
Read 14 tweets
27 Oct
Today we’ll be talking about the recruiting & hiring of disabled people for #faculty positions. Only ~4% of US faculty identify as disabled; not exactly representative of the ~20% of undergrads who are disabled...

Have you ever had a disabled professor? 1/6 #NDEAM #HigherEd
Sgoutas-Emch et al write about cohort hiring as a strategy to diversity #STEM faculty hires. This paper focuses on increasing the representation of women of color in UCSD’s STEM departments and outlines the steps of their cohort hiring ftp.arizonaea.org/home/68489.htm 2/6
The Urban Universities for Health also put out a report on the experiences of universities that have adopted cohort hiring practices. 70% of the universities reported an increase in faculty diversity following the implementation of cohort hiring tinyurl.com/CohortHire 3/6
Read 6 tweets
5 Oct
Hi everyone - we're so excited to have you along with us for the month of #NDEAM (National Disability Employment Awareness Month). We're hoping to take the month of October to create actionable change surrounding ableism in higher ed.
Did you know that roughly 25% of the US population is disabled? Likewise, schools report 20-25% of undergrads are disabled. The sad part is that only 8% of master's students, 7% of doctoral students, and a miniscule 3.6% of faculty ID as disabled #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter
As disabled doctoral students we're dismayed by these numbers! We don't see our identities reflected in the academy. As proponents of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) we want to enact real measurable change. #DisabilityTwitter
Read 5 tweets
4 Oct
We have a few poll questions for you. We hope that these polls will also spur on some discussion about disability in the academy.

Don't forget to share these polls with your colleagues and friends by retweeting! 1/

#DisInGradSchool #NDEAM #DisInHigherEd #HigherEd #DEHEM
You can pick "Show me results" if the question doesn't apply to you.

Please feel free to expand upon your answer in the comments below the poll. 2/

#DisInGradSchool #NDEAM #DisInHigherEd #HigherEd #DEHEM
If you are a TA, staff, or faculty member, have you ever received training about mentoring students with disabilities or promoting disabled student success? 3/

#DisInGradSchool #NDEAM #DisInHigherEd #HigherEd #DEHEM
Read 5 tweets
3 Oct
Ok y'all - we know it's the weekend and the world is a trash heap right now and you're burnt out. However, Universal Design strategies help us ALL - profs and students alike! Here are all of our resources on UDL that we've posted today - RT and tag your colleagues 1/5
Download @caitskirby's phenomenal one-pager using the following link: bit.ly/2GzKNVc

Print it out, hang it in your office, share it with your grad students. Send it to your cohort members, add it to your collection of pedagogy resources 2/5
@Nicole_Lee_Sch's introductory lecture on UDL practices and why we need them during the pandemic. Send it to you department, share it on your grad student facebook page, watch it in small chunks over the weekend. 3/5
Read 5 tweets
3 Oct
#UniversalDesign asks that you think about accommodations BEFORE you begin your course planning. I'm really passionate about UDL because I know how hard it is for students to secure accommodations and ensure they're followed. 1/9
There are huge barriers to securing accommodations. First of all, students need medical diagnoses. Yet we know women, students of color, and other minority students are less likely to be taken seriously by medical professionals. 2/9
Accommodations also cost a lot of money, even if you're privileged enough to have insurance coverage. It also costs time, access to medical specialists, and proper screening. Few people have access to that, so accommodations at best are a marker of privilege. 3/9
Read 9 tweets

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