Project Info

Accessibility and Accommodations for Students in STEM

Brianna Buljung
bbuljung@mines.edu

Project Goals and Description:

The student working on this project will explore initiatives and techniques for making STEM resources more accessible for students with disabilities. They will focus on accommodations that students with disabilities receive in their K-12 education and how some of those accommodations might translate to higher education. Federal requirements for providing support to students with disabilities are significantly less detailed once a student enters college and this often leads to struggles for students. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) supports students in K-12 education but does not apply to higher education. This research will inform further development of our Accessibility Course for Education (ACE) by helping faculty to bridge the gap between K-12 and higher education.   This project will be interesting to students who are exploring teaching careers, or who have any interest in teaching or training others as part of their work in industry. It will be interesting for students who are curious about issues related to access and inclusion in higher education, specifically STEM. The project also provides the opportunity to contribute to content in the open ACE course as well as the teaching practices of faculty across the Mines campus.  We have worked with a MURF for the past two years on initial steps in the project including a literature review and conducting a survey of Mines students and K-12 educators.

More Information:

Grand Challenge: Advance personalized learning.
  1. Mines OER Research Guide will provide insights into OER in general: https://libguides.mines.edu/oer  
  2. The Accessibility Course for Education is currently live on Canvas Commons: https://lor.instructure.com/resources/dbcb0b8d3013439386afe910e924eec7?shared Students don’t typically have access to Canvas Commons. If you are interested, please contact Seth Vuletich to be added to the course.  
  3. Conference feedback on this paper was the impetus for creating this project: Vuletich, S., Bongiovanni, E., Buljung, B.B.  and Odicino, A. (2022) “Building Curriculum for Instructors to Address OER Accessibility as STEM Librarians.” Paper presented at ASEE North Central Section 2022 Conference, March 18-19, Pittsburgh, PA. https://peer.asee.org/39230  
  4. Conference presentation with our current MURF on our work on the project thus far: Vuletich, S., & Buljung, B. B., & Regan, J. M. (2024, February), Cutting the Curb for Students with Disabilities Transitioning to Higher Education Paper presented at 2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), Arlington, Virginia. https://peer.asee.org/45441

Primary Contacts:

Brianna Buljung, bbuljung@mines.edu | Seth Vuletich, sethvuletich@mines.edu

Student Preparation

Qualifications

  1. Experience in interviewing and/or willingness to speak with professionals about their work – this student may be interviewing special education teachers and interventionists about their work with K-12 students 
  1. Curiosity and willingness to learn – the student may not have experience with accessibility or educational research but must be willing to ask questions and explore topics related to the research project. 

TIME COMMITMENT (HRS/WK)

3-5 hours per week

SKILLS/TECHNIQUES GAINED

  1. Advanced literature searching – researching, organizing and writing a literature review 
  2. Experience with human subjects research and applying for Institutional Review Board project approval 
  3. Survey design, marketing and analysis 
  4. Interview design, marketing and analysis 
  5. Research synthesis and application to real world needs of Mines faculty and students 

MENTORING PLAN

Continuing work started by our current MURF between 2022 and 2024, this student will start with in depth data analysis of survey data received thus far. They will also help strategize how to increase participation in the K-12 faculty survey. They will be instrumental in determining next steps for the research and formulating recommendations for Mines related to the transition to higher education for students with disabilities. The student will work closely with faculty librarians, a graduate fellow and other Mines faculty throughout the project. They will be able to tailor aspects of the project to their interests and professional goals. There will be opportunities to prepare publications for conferences and/or journals, exposure to the grant writing process and potentially (if time allows) to design a module for the ACE course. 

Preferred Student Status

Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
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