1

Best Practices: Inclusivity in Academic Studies

Henry Godfredson

University of Arizona

ENGL 109H

Kelli Lycke Martin

November 21, 2022

 2

Abstract
To best communicate with the disabled while conducting and reporting biological
research, many different steps could be taken to allow for broader perspectives and ideas.
This guide will speak on the best ways to communicate with people who have various
disabilities within the fields of biological research and sciences. The guide will focus primarily
on the conducting of research, alongside the writing of academic papers. By allowing for more
people with differing experiences and backgrounds to access and help to conduct research, more
perspectives towards various problems will be made available to better solve all the underlying
issues present in modern society.

Positionality Statement
Henry Godfredson, the author of this guide, is a first year student at the University of
Arizona studying biosystems engineering and applied mathematics. As someone who has read
many academic papers for research in both school and personal projects, he believes there is an
obvious gap in what is accessible to people who have physical disabilities or are of differing
cultures. Through his experience within the scientific community and in his 109H class, he
wishes to address these issues and possible solutions for them.

Ethics Statement
A large portion of the fields within biological sciences includes bioengineering, and more
specifically genetic engineering. As a writer, religious ideas towards the concepts of genetic
engineering are to be considered, however largely disregarded. This will hold true throughout the
majority of the bioengineering fields and thus should be held true here in this guide in the same
field. That being said, ethics within genetic engineering is a relative gray area, these children
(whether they are children of plants, animals, or people) have no choice in how they are being
modified before birth but are the ones who primarily deal with the consequences. So, it is always
paramount to consider and discuss ethical dilemmas within any field of research before any
action is to take place.

Background
According to the National Institute of Health, which is a leading group of research within
the biological fields, 9% of the population of researchers were reported to have a disability in
2019 (Bernard, 2021). This number is only growing as new methods of including these people
become more common. If one was to not do their utmost to include these individuals in their
research, they would be losing a very large amount of support that they could be receiving.
The diagram below shows the percentage of researchers that are within the top
researching countries. A huge amount of research is being done in primarily non-english
speaking countries. If research is not posted in multiple languages or in ways that is easily
understandable to various cultures, a lot of wasted resources could be saved by not conducting
similar experiments to people of different geographical locations. Implementing strategies to
efficiently communicate with people outside of the primarily english-speaking population is both
time and money saving when conducting research.
 3

People with differing disabilities who wish to be present in the biological and medical
research fields can provide many different perspectives and ideas compared to the non-disabled.
By accommodating them into various research formats and procedures, scientists can make new
discoveries and advancements quicker and possibly more effectively. An example of this can be
found in Rutgers University, where faculty member Douglas Kruse was caught in a car accident
and became permanently disabled. Douglas continued his research in biology by looking at the
best possible ways to include the disabled in many different academic fields. One of the
academic reports written by the group of researchers he is accompanied by is titled Trends and
opportunities in research on disability and work: An interdisciplinary perspective. This academic
journal points out many issues regarding disabled research and different options to fix or
alleviate those issues. The information found in this journal is integral in the writing of this guide
(Jurado-Caraballo, 2020).
After conducting research in any scientific field, to share the findings with the rest of the
world a researcher must write and publish a findings report, oftentimes called an academic
journal. In these academic journals, adding a voiceover, multiple images, diagrams, graphs, other
languages, etc can open up research to the wider world and make findings more accessible and
understandable for the vast majority of people. With more people being able to understand and
digest the research being done, more people can use that research to further other facets of
related issues, or expand upon the research being done. The practice of taking other people's
 4

research as a baseline to conduct research in completely different fields on similar principles is

integral for the expansion of science as a whole. Examples of which can be found anywhere in
research and academic journals, looking in reference sections.

Best Practices
A chapter of Deaf Community Involvement in the Research Process goes into detail about
the best ways to help include the deaf community in various research processes (Singleton,
2017). The foremost and best strategy is to plainly ask the deaf researcher if they need any help
and how you could best provide it. This strategy remains true for all various disabilities. Some
preemptive measures can be taken, however, for example, maybe some infrastructure could be
built to help accommodate people with wheelchairs. Some people with visual impairments may
appreciate a larger or higher resolution screen or text. Even just speaking slower, louder, or more
clearly could help include someone, even if they don't have a disability (such as people who
don’t have a complete grasp on the language being spoken). By making these smaller changes, a
large impact can be made and huge leaps in research can happen by helping improve
accessibility within the field.
To best help large groups of people from different cultures understand the contents of any
academic papers, adding a voiceover of the contents will allow them to better understand and
digest the ideas and results which are presented in the text. Translating any report to many
different languages, or at least the larger used languages such as Spanish, German, French,
Japanese, Mandarin, English, Cantonese, or Russian can allow researchers from different areas
of the world to be able to use and build off of the research being done. Of course speaking a
different language is not a disability in any means, however being able to spread the research that
is being done to different places around the world is very important to improving the field as a
whole.
Adding images, diagrams, graphs, and other visual aids will also help people who may
have a low reading comprehension in the languages provided or those who have visual
impairments. These also just help the overall understanding of the piece by the majority of
readers.
 5

References

Bernard, M. A. (2021, July 21). Advancing disability inclusion in the scientific workforce. National
Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from
https://diversity.nih.gov/blog/2021-07-21-advancing-disability-inclusion-scientific-workforce

Campbell, H. (2019). The Us Leads The World In Science Output While Israel Tops Per Capita |
Science 2.0 Visit . science.gov. Retrieved November 18, 2022

Jurado-Caraballo, M. Á., Quintana-García, C., & Rodríguez-Fernández, M. (2020). Trends and

opportunities in research on disability and work: An interdisciplinary perspective. BRQ
Business Research Quarterly, 25(4), 366–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/2340944420972715

Singleton, J., Jones, G., & Hanumantha, S. (2017, July). Deaf Community Involvement in the
Research Process: An Examination of Barriers and Strategies in Research in Deaf
Education. Academic.oup.com. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from
https://academic.oup.com/book/2478/chapter/142751320

(yes I know I need 10 but I couldn't find a way to include that many)