Committee on Chemists with Disabilities Update by Lauren Ragle

I bring you greetings from New Orleans! “Laissez les bons temps rouler!” (“Let the good times roll!”)

The Committee has accomplished several things on our strategic plan, trying to keep to our mission of “Making Chemistry Accessible to All”. If you’d like, we have t-shirts with tactile Braille for sale, free stickers, and free silicon wristbands. If interested in spreading the message of accessibility in chemistry, I’m happy to make connections to the folks who have the fun stuff. Unfortunately, the ACS Store did not sell our shirt at the New Orleans Expo, so we are pushing to get it back into the store for Denver. But again, if you’d like one, I’m more than happy to make connections.

If you’re involved in chemistry education, I want to recommend you check out our publication, “Teaching Chemistry to Students with Disabilities.” There are a lot of tips in there that can help you design an accessible, inclusive environment. https://acscwd.org/TCSWD.html

I want to note that we sponsor travel to ACS meetings for students with disabilities. We also sponsor a ChemLuminary Award that CSW might want to consider as we plan for the rest of the year. As a CWD committee member, I would be more than happy to work with any of you on brainstorming how to make chemistry more accessible – at the CSW level, school level, or even classroom level. I also have a talk that I do regarding tips on inclusivity and striving towards truly accessible science. If you have any questions or want to make the committee aware of anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Lauren Ragle at [email protected].