Dr Becky Carlyle
I had the opportunity yesterday to attend a panel event organized by my Department’s Disability Working Group called “Disabled Researchers in Conversation.” The panel was beautifully chaired by Katy Willard, a PhD student, and featured panel organizer and Oxford Post Doc Hadas Sloin, Associate Professor and Director of Jolly Vision Science Jasleen Jolly, and Brennan Wiffen, a Research Assistant at Evotec. The panel members spoke with passion and humour about some of the barriers they have faced as disabled researchers, and offered some really important ideas for how Managers and PIs can improve their working environment, wellbeing and ability to thrive.
I am still learning about many of these issues, and so for those more well versed, the things I’m about to discuss might seem like common sense. I think it’s easy as a new PI to be looking at your limited start up budget and worry how you might provide accommodations for a new team member. Katy Willard, the PhD student who moderated this session, has some encouraging words here; “To manage lab work, I found it wasn’t one big, obvious adaptation that I needed to thrive. It was lots of little and often trivial changes to my daily routine that made the difference. The lab supported me in identifying and implementing these over the first few months of work, with help from the wider department. It’s this kind of open and continuous support that I think is key.”
Many of the problems that disabled researchers face are systemic, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do as individual managers. If you want to read much more deeply into best practices for support at all levels, then the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks has written an excellent white paper that can be found here. As the report suggests, improving workplaces for disabled people is an urgent and essential need; the proportion of working age people thought to have a condition that would be recognised as a disability under the 2010 Equality Act is approximately 30%. Yet disabled people are severely under-represented in STEMM careers, making up approximately 6.4% of the workforce, and less than 1% of UKRI applicants disclose a disability. 62% of disabled people report bullying and harassment in the workplace, compared to 43% of all other scientists. This is quite simply, not good enough.
Flexible Working
The one thing that came across loud and clear from all panel members was that flexible working is absolutely essential. With many disabilities the ability to be productive can wax and wane, and there may be times of day, or particular situations which are particularly optimal for each individual. Trusting that your team member understands themselves and their needs better than anyone else, and providing a target driven workplace environment without day-to-day micromanagement was the number one thing suggested. For scientists early in their careers, or who have experienced changes in their health and circumstances, they may need space to figure these things out – opportunities to experiment with structuring their time and their days, and to work out what works for them. Providing an environment that feels safe for them to do this is vital. It is also important to know that difficult conversations are okay. If someone isn’t meeting their targets, it’s important to be able to have respectful and constructive conversations about whether more support might be needed, accommodations changed, or whether the team member is underperforming for any number of reasons. On this topic, Hadas has shared that “The best way my supervisor supported me is by trusting me and being patient. I wasn’t treated differently in any way but was also not reprimanded or commented on taking more sick days or saying I am unable to perform certain procedures in the lab.When I once apologised to my supervisor that I took some days off, he told me that I have nothing to apologise for, as he knows that even if I have periods off, when I’m working, my work is great. This made me feel truly appreciated, and like I had the space to contribute to the lab in the way I could, without feeling bad about the ways I couldn’t.”
Good communication
It’s extremely important to be able to have these frank conversations, but to come to them with an attitude of discovering how you might be able to support them, as opposed to expecting to know everything about a particular team member’s disability. Repeatedly having to explain the details of a disability can be burdensome, and at worst can be retraumatising. It’s fine to engage with information that is freely given, but it is not your right to receive it. Remember that any information shared with you is not necessarily public, and be sure that when you think you are helping, you don’t accidentally “out” someone or share information they may not want publicized. For example, “we’ve all been sitting in this meeting a long time, how about we have a short biobreak?” is a much better way to support someone who may need a break, than asking them if they need one in front of everyone, or expecting them to just leave an important meeting.
Securing accommodations
And with that, we come to accommodations. Accessing programs for accommodations is probably not something you’ll do many times in your career, and the panel made it very clear that it can be difficult. In a university setting, different team members will have access to different programs. Post Docs and other staff are usually covered through the government Access to Work programme, although unfortunately non-UK citizens new to the country may not yet be eligible. Students are often covered through student support schemes, which can be over-subscribed and limited in budget. Departments may be able to help with small accommodations along the way. You can be an excellent extra support for your team member by helping them navigate and pushing through these processes if they are happy for you to do so. Encourage your HR teams to have a specific staff member who can act as the point person for disabled staff and students, and begin the process of connecting them with the right route for support. Consider making notes as you go through the process, and if there are obvious places that things can be connected and streamlined within your department, feed them back constructively.
Securing accommodations can be an exhausting process, and places a high burden on the disabled team member to continually advocate for themselves. There is an alternative – that we push for better accessibility everywhere. If you are starting your own lab and getting to remodel your lab space, ensure you have as many spaces as possible in your lab with flexible bench heights and flexible seating arrangements. Try to purchase large equipment with front-mounted controls, and think about how you can locate frequently used items within 40-50 cm of the bench edge. It’s great to have adjustable lighting for different tasks, and try not to store important things on high shelves and cupboards (I’m just starting to understand how inaccessible my very much not remodelled lab is at the moment). Provide trolleys for moving large and bulky items, and work to keep your floor space free of clutter.
Hang on a minute, you’re saying, isn’t this better for everybody in the lab? Well yes, yes it is. These kinds of set ups allow for better ergonomic control for all staff, and a healthier, happier workplace from the get go. When you find yourself in a position of influence, and you sit on the kind of panels where new buildings are being designed, make sure they are done so with accessibility front and centre.
There is no single science career
And a final point made by the panel, which is more directed at those who may be finding their current environment or role difficult. Not managing to cope with the job in a specific lab or a specific course, does not mean that a scientific career is not for you. There is no single science career, and no single science lab. Every Department, every building, every lab is different, and just because one might be a bad fit, doesn’t mean they all will be. On the panel we heard stories of a range of experiences, including challenges, persistence, and different forms of success. As managers, it’s important that we realise that accessibility isn’t a niche concern – it’s a core part of building better science for all.
Some additional resources on this topic can be found below (thanks to Hadas for these):
Dr Becky Carlyle
Dr Becky Carlyle is an Alzheimer’s Research UK Senior Research Fellow at University of Oxford, and has previously worked in the USA. Becky writes about her experiences of starting up a research lab and progressing into a more senior research role. Becky’s research uses mass-spectrometry to quantify thousands of proteins in the brains and biofluids of people with dementia. Her lab is working on various projects, including work to compare brain tissue from people with dementia from Alzheimer’s Disease, to tissue from people who have similar levels of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology but no memory problems. Becky is also a mum, she runs, drinks herbal tea’s and reads lots of books.