• • Use accessible technologies for data collection, ensuring that online surveys, computer tasks, and other research tools are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies.

• • Provide paper copies of informed consent and questionnaires if preferred by participant

• • Provide options for participants to use their own assistive devices during research activities.

Wet Lab Research Spaces

1. Workspace Considerations

• • Place equipment, chemicals, safety equipment, and operating mechanisms at a height that is accessible from a seated position and limits extended reaching

• • Avoid positioning equipment in places that would require students to reach over dangerous/harmful chemicals

• • Provide equipment that accommodates both left-handed and right-handed users

• • Ensure sufficient space for persons with mobility devices to turn around

• • Make sure that the routes and paths of travel are free of obstructions for safe navigation from the entrance to the exit

• • Maintain a consistent furniture layout to allow persons with low vision or blindness to navigate safely, especially if they have already received orientation and mobility training and become familiar with the lab’s layout

• • Include an adjustable height working station in each laboratory

• • Consider rounding sharp corners on workstations where possible

• • Lighting sources should provide comfortable and evenly distributed light at all working areas

• • Provide signage on drawers, cabinets and shelves indicating what materials are contained inside

• • Hang bulletin boards, emergency information, and experiment information (e.g. posters) at a height that can be viewed by a person in a seated position (no higher than 30in from the ground to the bottom of the sign)

Using the Framework of Disability Justice when Creating Accessible Research Spaces

In considering how to create an accessible research space for all individuals it is important to understand how these recommendations fit into the disability justice framework. Sins Invalid, a disability justice-based performance project led by disabled people of color created the ten principles of disability justice. Disability justice is a movement towards a world in which every body and mind is known as beautiful.  These principles are discussed below and recommendations are given for how to create research spaces that are in line with them.

1. Intersectionality: “We do not live single issue lives” — Audre Lorde

• • Keep in mind that accommodations may look different for different people with the same disability as many factors such as race, class, age, religious background and more may shape their experience.

2. Leadership of those Most Impacted: “We are led by those who most know these systems” – Aurora Levins Morales

• • Work with the person with a disability and listen to the needs they identify

• • Develop feedback mechanisms for people to anonymously report changes they need in research spaces

3. Anti-Capitalist Politics: “Our worth is not dependent on what and how much we can produce” – Sins Invalid 

• • Allow flexible work schedules (hours of day, days of the week) and deadlines wherever or whenever possible

• • Incorporate regular breaks into instruction and lab work

• • Recognize metrics of success in the lab outside of research productivity (e.g. commitment to service and mentoring other students)

4. Cross-Movement Solidarity

• • An accessible lab must also be rooted in anti-racism and vice versa. Labs should consider leading informed discussion about antiracism regularly. (See https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7529192/ for tips on how to implement this)

5. Recognizing Wholeness: “Disabled people are whole people”– Sins Invalid 

• • Create personalized accommodations for lab members

6. Sustainability: “We learn to pace ourselves, individually and collectively, to be sustained long-term.” – Sins Invalid 

• • Recognize that academia can lead to high levels of burn out.

• • The current SGS guidelines require students to have at least 15 days of personal time off per year. However, consider adopting an unlimited time off policy which has been shown to reduce burn out and increase productivity when properly encouraged and promoted in the workplace (Bloom et al., 2022) Further, this places trust in the student and promotes autonomy and agency.

• • Normalize not working on weekends and holidays when possible

• • Include in any email communications: “My work hours may not be the same as yours. Please do not feel obligated to reply outside of the work schedule that works for you” 

7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity 

• • Acknowledge that not all disabilities are visible and regularly spread awareness that you would be happy to accommodate any needs (UofT student disclosure guide)

• • Recognize and support those who are sick or chronically ill, people with mental health disabilities, neurodiverse people, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, Deaf people, Blind people, people with environmental injuries and chemical sensitivities, and all others who experience ableism and isolation equally

8. Interdependence 

• • Facilitate open communication with lab members and hold routine check ins

• • Provide lab members with links to emotional support resources

• • Acknowledge that research spaces are inherently collective. Strive to reduce competitiveness and promote collaboration.

9. Collective Access 

• • From Sins Invalid: “Access needs aren’t shameful – we all function differently depending on context and environment. Access needs can be articulated and met privately, through a collective, or in community, depending upon an individual’s needs, desires, and the capacity of the group. We can share responsibility for our access needs, we can ask that our needs be met without compromising integrity, we can balance autonomy while being in community, we can be unafraid of our vulnerabilities, knowing our strengths are respected.” 

• • Promote autonomy for individuals to identify their own access needs

• • Acknowledge that communication of these needs may need to take different forms (in-person check in meetings, group meetings, anonymous form, etc.)

10. Collective Liberation: No body or mind can be left behind 

• • Use universal design principles (as outlined above) to guide creation of lab spaces to ensure all bodies and minds can exist within the space