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Persons with Disabilities in STEM Prior to the 1990 American's with…
Tags: academic courses, academic transition, disabilities act, disabilities education act, education for all handicapped children act, eha, individuals with disabilities, individuals with disabilities education, individuals with disabilities education act, information dissemination, national science foundation, nsf program, persons with disabilities, program solicitation, rde, regional alliances, research initiatives, science foundation program, students with disabilities, transition points,Pages: 3
Language: english
Created: Tue May 27 11:23:39 2008
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Persons with Disabilities in STEM
Prior to the 1990 American's with Disabilities Act, which guaranteed access to full civil rights for those with
disabilities, a series of laws related to education for students with disabilities had been passed starting in
1975. In that year, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was passed, with additional
amendments in 1986 (with a rename to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA) and 1990.
These acts sought to increase access of students with disabilities to meaningful public education to enable
their full integration into U.S. civil society.
The National Science Foundation program for Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) supports a range of
efforts that attempt to increase access to STEM careers for persons with disabilities:
Regional Alliances for Persons with Disabilities;
Focused Research Initiatives; and
Demonstration, Enrichment, and Information Dissemination.
According to the most recent NSF program solicitation, the objectives of the RDE program are:
Increasing public awareness and recognition of the capabilities of people with disabilities.
Developing, promoting, and evaluating the use of accessible and appropriate assistive technologies,
instructional materials, and learning resources for students with disabilities in STEM and STEM
professionals.
Encouraging the incorporation of universal design learning approaches into STEM education.
Employing proven practices, like mentoring, to support success for students with disabilities in STEM
academic courses, at critical academic transition points, within research and industry internships and
in the transition to the STEM workforce.
Persons with Disabilities in the STEM Pipeline
(% PWD at each level)
12% 11.4%
11.0%
10.0%
10%
8.0%
8%
6.7%
6% 5.0%
4%
2% 1.1%
0%
15-24 y ear old STEM STEM graduate STEM doctoral U.S. w orkforce STEM STEM doctoral
population undergraduates students recipients (ages 21-64) w orkforce faculty
Source: CPST analysis of data from National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics. 2008.
Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering, 2007.
Note: Data for this chart were originally taken, by NSF, from multiple sources. Workforce data are from the
U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program participation, 2002, data on students are from the U.S.,
Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, 2005. All other data are for the year 2004.
CPST Comments, May 28, 2008, http://www.cpst.org
We provide here a summary of data about persons with disabilities in STEM, derived by CPST from National
Science Foundation reports. The first figure shows the relative percentage of persons with disabilities along
the STEM pipeline. STEM fields recruit at about parity into the undergraduate level. A note of caution is due
here, however, as the chart shows total undergraduate enrollments, which includes two-year colleges. It is
likely due to the inclusion of students at two-year colleges that we see such a dramatic difference in the rate of
participation of persons with disabilities in graduate education (6.7%) relative to the undergraduate enrollment
rate, with a still larger decline at the doctoral level (1.1%).
The second figure shows that over the past eight years, the number of persons with disabilities earning
doctoral degrees has varied little: ranging from a high of 341 in 2001 to the low in 2004 of 284. In short, little
progress has been made over this period in term of increasing the participation of persons with disabilities in
doctoral degree programs.
STEM Doctoral Degrees Awarded 1997-2004 by Disability Status
28,000
27,500 With disability
27,000 320 322
No disability
26,500
284
26,000
337 328
25,500 341
313
25,000
24,500 326
24,000
23,500
23,000
22,500
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Source: CPST analysis of NSF, SRS, Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in
Science and Engineering, 2007 . These data w ere originally f rom the Survey of Earned
Doctorates survey program.
The table shows that when we look at the specific areas in which persons with disabilities participate at the
undergraduate level in STEM, there has been a narrowing of differences between 1995-96 and 2004.
Specifically, in the 1995-96 data, we see that persons with disabilities were less likely than their peers to be
majoring in life sciences, mathematics, physical and social sciences but more likely to be in engineering and
computer/information sciences. By 2004, however, students with disabilities were more likely to choose
computer/information sciences and less likely to choose the other STEM areas at the undergraduate level.
CPST Comments, May 28, 2008, http://www.cpst.org
Students Majoring in the STEM Fields by Disability Status
1996 2004
No disability Disability GAP No disability Disability GAP
Computer/information
sciences 3.3 3.9 0.6 6.1 7.2 1.1
Engineering 8.2 9.7 1.5 5.4 4.5 -0.9
Life sciences 5.7 3.4 -2.3 4.9 4.7 -0.2
Mathematics 0.6 0.2 -0.4 0.6 0.4 -0.2
Physical sciences 1 0.6 -0.4 0.8 0.7 -0.1
Social/behavioral sciences
9.7 9.4 -0.3 8.8 9.3 0.5
Total in STEM 28.5 27.2 -1.3 26.6 26.8 0.2
NOTES: For disability status, those w ho reported any ty pe of disability related to blindness, deafness, sev ere v ision
or hearing impairment, substantial limitation of mobility , or any other phy sical, mental, or emotional condition that
lasted 6 months or more w ere classified as "w ith disability ."
SOURCE: CPST Analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, 1995-96 and 2004.
On the Web: http://www.nsf.gov/
To view all of the latest CPST Comments articles, click here.
To visit the CPST webpage, click here.
CPST Comments, May 28, 2008, http://www.cpst.org