Inclusive and Accessible Engineering Education for Disabled Students
Ableism is a barrier to accessible engineering education. Since Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandated equal access to postsecondary institutions for people with disabilities, there has been pushback.
Improvements have been made through laws, research, and activism, but there are still many steps we must take to further the accessibility and inclusion of disabled students in educational environments. As a disabled student, Mariah is committed to contributing to the engineering education literature on this subject. She has been invited to give a keynote presentation and has two papers accepted on the topics on accessible education for disabled student and neurodiversity. Mariah will also be inducted into the University of New Hampshire Diversity Hall of Fame in the Fall of 2022.
Publication
Developing Mentoring Strategies to Support Neuroinclusive Undergraduate Research Experiences
Mariah serves as a Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Jeffrey Halpern at the University of New Hampshire on a project focused on improving mentoring practices for neurodivergent students in engineering research. Initiated in 2018, this work explores how inclusive pedagogy and universal design principles can be applied to create research environments that better support students with Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other cognitive differences. The project aims to identify mentoring strategies that enhance communication, belonging, and research success while promoting more inclusive and effective lab cultures across STEM.
Some images were created using BioRender.