I’m working on writing a paper on accessibility in Chemistry labs. It was a broader topic, but I decided to narrow it down to my discipline because a general overview of disability and science is too broad, but hopefully a look into the specific branch of chemistry, and more specifically on Chemistry labs, that I might be able to learn something interesting. Here’s what I’ve got so far, which isn’t very much and definitely not complete, but it’s something.

Introduction

People with disabilities have been a long part of the scientific discourse and discovery for centuries. John Dalton (1766-1844), who was colorblind, was one of the first people to scientifically study colorblindness and it’s causes, as well as being an influential chemist, physicist, and geologist. Charles Steinmetz, a mathematician, and physicist, had Kyphosis, a condition that made him look according to the Smithsonian, “four feet tall, his body contorted by a hump in his back and a crooked gait, and his stunted torso gave the illusion that his head, hands and feet were too big.” He was the first to describe the law of hysteresis, which was influential in the development of alternating- and direct-electrical current technology (AC and DC). And yet, perhaps the only disabled scientist you probably know is Stephen Hawking.

I was brought into this discussion with an essay presented in the book “Disability Visibility” written by Wanda Diaz-Merced titled “How a Blind Astronomer Found a Way to Hear the Stars” (the essay was originally presented as a Ted talk, an astronomer who developed blindness during her college studies, and found a way to translate graphical data to sound, a process called sonification.  

1. A look around the narratives presented by American Chemical Society
   1. Krystal Vasquez, “Excluded from the Lab”
      1. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000869161/disabled-scientists-are-often-excluded-from-the-lab
      1. Krystal Vasquez does talk about access in conferences, which is a good tie in with Margaret Price’s “The Construction of Disability in Conference Policy
   1. Annemarie Ross
      1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpLzkDdulw
      1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hni7BxQM7c8
2. A look at the guidelines presented by the ACS
3. Perhaps a look into the chemistry labs and how they make their labs accessible. (Field Trip! This could fun!) See how Western complies with these guidelines.
   • Here’s some picks of the disability amenities presented in the lab that I work in:

Tentative title:

“Wardrobe of Masks”– a visual for the interaction of passing and masquerading in relation to identity and society

Central Issue:

How do different societal interactions affect one’s expression of identity? My Exploration will mainly focus on the impact outside perspectives have on personal expression when it comes to disability intersecting another minority status. In particular, I plan to investigate potential reasons for changes and hierarchy in performances.

Product Design:

Drawing inspiration from Tobin Seibers’ “Disability as Masquerade”, the product will be a literal mask. This is partially to evoke the idea of masking, a term referring to passing in the Nuerodivergent spheres, and to directly reference what Seibers refers to as ‘Masquerade’. The mask will have three to four layers, each layer representing a different community and the fictional mask wearer’s performance of identity in that community. Underneath all the masks, though still in the works, the mask wearer’s actual face will be represented by sculpted creature. I am reserving the right to change how the core person is represented. To help enrich the different masks, I plan to reference quite a few chapters from Visibility Disability in each layer. At the moment, I am still deciding on my other major sources for the overall final product. These sources will probably impact how I display the masks. They also might impact the dialog which I plan to write to represent interactions between the masks.

I also think it will be fun to play with an idea that people change up their performance like clothes depending on the situation. This may result in the masks being stored in a box made to look like a wardrobe or closet. This will probably be where the dialogs will be displayed.

Production Plan:

Week 1(11/1-11/7): Gather materials, finalize main sources.

Week 2(11/8-11/14): Start constructing the masks, and draft the thematic dialog, meet with Andrew to review project so far.

Week 3(11/15-11/21): Finish constructing the bases of the masks, have completed drafts of all dialog.

Week 4(11/22-11/28): review dialog drafts (other people besides myself), start adding the finishing touches to each mask.

Week 5(11/29-12/5): add final details, complete any last minute changes.

Consultation:

Ideally, the meeting would be in the earlier stages of the project, before a structure has been fully committed to. The Masks will take some effort to make and there will point where I cannot make any changes to a layer without remaking the whole layer. Ideally I would like to meet on November 10^th as I will probably have not started making the masks, but will have completed the bulk of my research. I would like to know if there are any other sources on passing or similar to the readings we have done by Dolmage. I think readings more focused on general themes rhetoric surrounding disability would work well in informing the dialogs’ structure and content.

Citations:

Kuppers, Petra. “performance”, Keywords for Disability Studies.  Edited by Adams, R., Serlin, D., & Serlin, D. H. (2015). NYU Press.

O’Toole, Corbett Joan. “Celebrating Crip Bodyminds” Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History, 1^st ed., Autonomous Press, June 9^th, 2015, pp.13-53

Dolmage, Jay. Disability Rhetoric. First edition., Syracuse University Press, 2014(. Pp.93-125)

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong, Vintage, June30th, 2020.