Designing inclusive scientific workplaces

For many people, lab spaces are not the comfortable and serviceable working environment they should be. Around 22% of the UK population has a disability but disabled people remain massively underrepresented across the scientific sector, with less than 4% of academic staff declaring a disability. With such a stark disparity between these figures, it’s clear there’s a systemic problem in science.

The introduction of the Equality Act in 2010 has improved the working landscape for disabled people, providing protection against discrimination and a right to reasonable adjustments in the workplace. Declared disabilities doubled in science between 2008 and 2019 but nonetheless remain significantly and consistently lower than in other sectors, with numbers falling rapidly with increasing responsibility.

‘The simple Equality Act definition of disability is any difference that has a significant impact on your day-to-day activities and lasts more than six months,’ explains Emrys Travis, a disability and accessibility specialist at the Royal Society of Chemistry. ‘But it’s more helpful to use the social model: disability is a disenfranchisement that arises through interaction with a traditionally ableist society. So we could talk about enabling versus disabling environments, for example.’