2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

CAREER: Innovation for Inclusion: Establishing the Landscape of Disability Access and Policy in Higher Education

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

Recent calls for equitable access for people with disabilities have gained attention from political leaders, STEM agencies, engineering societies, and scholars, highlighting the underrepresentation of disabled engineers, who comprise only 8% of awarded STEM doctorates. Systemic gaps in access, particularly in higher education and the workplace, persist. Faculty play a crucial role in influencing students' experiences but often lack the training and resources to support disabled students effectively, requiring students to informally guide them on accommodations. This CAREER project seeks to address these challenges by developing support structures that foster collaboration between students, faculty, and administrators. Through organizational theory frameworks and a mixed-methods approach, the project aims to enhance systemic access and inclusion for disabled students in engineering and serve as a model for other STEM fields. The education plan will offer practical strategies through the Innovation for Inclusion framework and create a community of practice to promote greater inclusivity.

This poster presentation will present findings from Phase 1 of the CAREER study, which aims to establish a foundational understanding of the policies and information currently accessible to university students and faculty regarding disability accommodations. To create this overview, we employed content analysis techniques to evaluate publicly available disability accommodation and support policies from the websites of 25 higher education institutions across the U.S. Our analysis was guided by the University Disability Inclusion Score framework developed by Johns Hopkins University and the Transparency Indicator Scorecard created by Harder and Jordan, focusing on various disability inclusion factors such as website navigation, resource accessibility, policy content, and intended audience. Our findings reveal a diverse array of information available to students and faculty, highlighting opportunities for cross-institutional learning and collaboration. The insights gained from this analysis will inform the development of future data collection protocols aimed at conducting interviews with university students, faculty, and administrators in the subsequent phases of the project.

Authors

Dr. Cassandra McCall http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-0240-432X Utah State University [biography]

Dr. Cassandra McCall is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Department at Utah State University (USU). Her research focuses on the intersections of disability, identity formation, and culture and uses anti-ableist approaches to enhance universal access for students with disabilities in STEM, particularly in engineering. At USU, she serves as the Co-Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Transition Services. In 2024, Dr. McCall received a National Science Foundation CAREER grant to identify systemic opportunities for increasing the participation of people with disabilities in engineering. Her award-winning publications have been recognized by leading engineering education research journals at both national and international levels. Dr. McCall has led several workshops promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities and other minoritized groups in STEM. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering with a structural engineering emphasis.
Ms. Le Tram Huong Dang Utah State University - Engineering Education [biography]

Ms. Le Tram Huong Dang is a Graduate Student in the Engineering Education Department at Utah State University (USU). Her research focuses on how institutional structures and policies shape the experiences of students with disabilities in higher education. As a lecturer in civil engineering in Vietnam, she has experience in teaching, educational technology, civil engineering education. She has conducted studies on teaching methods and course design in civil engineering education. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mapping, remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS).
Kristine Marie Peterson Utah State University - Engineering Education [biography]

Kristine Peterson is a Graduate Student in the Engineering Education Department at Utah State University. She holds a B.S. in Biological Engineering from the same institution, where she developed a strong interest in inclusive teaching practices and STEM outreach. Her research focuses on accessibility and the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in engineering, informed by her personal experiences with chronic illness. She has eight years of research experience in biomaterials and pharmaceuticals, with publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at national conferences. Peterson has also served in multiple teaching assistant roles and is committed to engaging students through creative methods such as visual tools, humor, and analogies. She is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers and a recipient of several academic awards.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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