Workshop: Perspectives on Employment for / from Persons with Disabilities, February 17-21, 2011, Washington, DC

Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

PI: Sharma, Amy and Foreman, Angela L. Proposal Number: 1058171 "We take different approaches to problems, and the best solutions are achieved by the greatest diversity." Doug Wide, Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University (Mech. Eng. Vol. 132, Feb 2010). The PIs propose to hold a career workshop at the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting to take place Feb. 17-21, 2011 in Washington, DC. This workshop will focus on the perspectives of persons with disabilities, and their potential employers, on how to successfully navigate the engineering workforce. It will also provide an opportunity to disseminate the data and lessons learned from the 2009 AAAS Problem Solvers: Education and Career Paths of Engineers with Disabilities Workshop (funded by the NSF) that provided an opportunity for persons with disabilities to review: employment issues, accommodations from an engineering perspective and assistive technology. This workshop idea was conceived by members of the AAAS Committee on Opportunities in Science (COOS) at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in response to the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting theme of "Science Without Borders", receiving full support of COOS. The workshop will promote diversity in the workforce by providing strategies to overcome potential barriers to entry into engineering. By necessity, persons with disabilities develop creative problem solving skills to overcome everyday obstacles, providing them with a unique skill set applicable to many engineering fields. Potential topics to be covered will include both employers and employees viewpoints. At the end of the session, potential employees should feel empowered to seek employment, by learning to focus on their own intellectual strengths and being prepared to discuss employer concerns. Potential employers can discover the needs to persons with disabilities in order to proactively make changes necessary to create an inclusive environment that values intellect and diversity. Intellectual Merit The PIs believe that the field of engineering would benefit from more diverse perspectives in its workforce, especially the perspective of persons with disabilities. Specifically, by incorporating the users perspective into design, the potential for more practical and useful assistive technology is greatly increased. More broadly, a diverse engineering design team with multiple points of view has greater potential to think outside the box and develop more creative technology to solve a myriad of 21st century problems. Broader Impacts Several employees and employers have identified best practice for successful persons with disabilities (pwd) employment in engineering fields. By disseminating these lessons learned, this workshop will contribute toward a paradigm shift away from perceived limitations (imposed by both pwds and society) and toward strengths of the individual. The conversation can begin to move from focusing on the negative to focusing on the positive. The AAAS Meeting attracts a large audience from academia, industry and the policy community making it an ideal forum to reach a broad range of individuals who have the ability to make an impact in the engineering sector by addressing diversity from multiple angles.