Disability, colonialism and Earth science
By Rebecca Williams
In the UK, the 14th November to 20th December 2024 is UK Disability History Month. The theme of the 2024 UKDHM is “Disability Livelihood and Employment” and they have collated resources on the employment of disabled people past and present to navigate a more equitable way forward. https://ukdhm.org/ We want to use this as an opportunity to draw attention to disability and Earth Science and launch our infographic ‘Disability, colonialism and Earth Science‘.
Disability has been seen for many years as synonymous with non-employment or unemployment.
UKDHM
Disability as a colonial construct
How is this related to Earth Science and the UK Decolonising Earth Science project? In our infographic we briefly explore how disability is entangled in themes of colonialism. This is explored in much more detail in an extensive work by Grech & Soldatic, 2015. Whilst we don’t want to suggest that impairment isn’t real, it is useful to understand that the categories of disability are not absolute and that “disability is constituted in the relationship between impairment and environmental conditions, including conditions in the social environment” (Swartz, 2022). It can be argued that disability is a colonial construct. In this 2020 article, Ineese-Nash offers a critical perspective through Indigenous (Anishinaabek) knowledge and provides some excellent introductory sections if you are new to this idea. Furthermore, the extractive commercial practices that were central to colonial projects often caused disability in colonised communities, as summarised in Swartz, 2022 – we provide some examples in our infographic that are related to geological exploration and exploitation.
Disability and the Earth Sciences
The study and practise of geology (Earth Science/geoscience) has been exclusive of those with disabilities. There is not only the stereotype that geoscience is for rugged, able-bodied (white and male) types (Atchison, C. L., and Libarkin, J. C. 2016), but this is also often the reality demanded by industry. Shafer et al., analysed 2,500 job advertisements for entry-level geoscience positions across 19 industries and found that 58% or adverts required a physical ability (Shafer et al., 2024). Shafer and colleagues go on to argue that the case for requiring these abilities is not clearly made, and that providing accommodations so that those with disabilities can perform core functions improves workplace settings in a myriad of ways for both the employees and the company.
Only 13% of ads requesting a physical ability provided a statement saying the employer would make an accommodation for the applicant where possible
Shafer et al., 2024
It is widely recognised that this tradition of disability exclusion begins in educational settings. There is a growing body of literature exploring both the exclusive practices and the interventions that can be made to dismantle these barriers. We provide a non-exhaustive list of references below. A special shout-out for the exemplary work in this field by the International Association for Geoscience Diversity and Diversity in Geoscience UK. Both are driving forwards efforts in this area and have curated extensive resources on their websites we recommend exploring.
For us, this is an example where the topics of EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) and decolonisation intersect. We argue that challenging colonial constructs such as disability can be a decolonial practise as well as improving EDI in the Earth Sciences. Great strides have been made in this respect in the last few years. In the UK, both the Subject Benchmark Statement and the Geological Society Accreditation both demands, and makes allowable, accessibility for people with disabilities. Reasonable adjustments are common place in UK educational settings. But, there is a difference between accessible and inclusive. A truly inclusive experience would have accessibility designed into curriculums, pedagogy, learning spaces and interactions – the Inclusive Education Framework by Katharine Hubbard and Paula Gawthorpe is a great way to think this through and offers a toolkit to make change.
Whether you’re an educator, an employer, a science communicator or are working in Earth Science in another way, what can you do to make your workplace, programmes, field work and events more inclusive to people with disabilities?
References
Atchison, C. L., & Libarkin, J. C. (2016). Professionally held perceptions about the accessibility of the geosciences. Geosphere, 12(4), 1154-1165. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES01264.1
Grech, S., & Soldatic, K. (2015). Disability and colonialism: (dis)encounters and anxious intersectionalities. Social Identities, 21(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2014.995394
Ineese-Nash, N. (2020). Disability as a Colonial Construct: The Missing Discourse of Culture in Conceptualizations of Disabled Indigenous Children. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(3), 28–51. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v9i3.645
Shafer, G. W., Viskupic, K., & Egger, A. E. (2024). Geoscience Job Advertisements as a Barrier to Employment for People With Disabilities. Earth Science, Systems and Society, 4, 10086. https://doi.org/10.3389/esss.2024.10086
Swartz, L. (2022). Disability in the global south: The colonial past in the embodied present. Clinical Psychology Forum 353. https://doi.org/10.53841/bpscpf.2022.1.353.49
Take Action – further reading
Carabajal, I. G., Marshall, A. M., & Atchison, C. L. (2017). A Synthesis of Instructional Strategies in Geoscience Education Literature That Address Barriers to Inclusion for Students With Disabilities. Journal of Geoscience Education, 65(4), 531–541. https://doi.org/10.5408/16-211.1
Castro, I. O., & Atchison, C. L. (2024). Acknowledging the Intersectionality of Geoscientists With Disabilities to Enhance Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Earth Science, Systems and Society, 4, 10081. https://doi.org/10.3389/esss.2024.10081
Chiarella D, Vurro G. Fieldwork and disability: an overview for an inclusive experience. Geological Magazine. 2020;157(11):1933-1938. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756820000928
Feig, A. D., Atchison, C., Stokes, A., & Gilley, B. (2019). Achieving inclusive field-based education: Results and recommendations from an accessible geoscience field trip. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 19(2) https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v19i1.23455
Lawrence, A. Between a rock and a workplace. Nat. Geosci. 14, 454–455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00775-4
Lawrence, A., & Dowey, N. (2022). Six simple steps towards making GEES fieldwork more accessible and inclusive. Area, 54(1), 52-59. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12747
Mol, L., & Atchison, C. (2019). Image is everything: educator awareness of perceived barriers for students with physical disabilities in geoscience degree programs. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 43(4), 544–567. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2019.1660862
Rutkofske, J. E., Pavlis, T. L., & Ramirez, S. (2022). Applications of modern digital mapping systems to Assist inclusion of persons with disabilities in geoscience education and research. Journal of Structural Geology, 161, 104655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2022.104655
Stokes, A., Feig, A. D., Atchison, C. L., & Gilley, B. (2019). Making geoscience fieldwork inclusive and accessible for students with disabilities. Geosphere, 15(6), 1809-1825. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02006.1
