The Office of the Provost’s Disability Scholarship Initiative is intended to support the pursuit of new scholarship aimed to better understand and address the concerns of faculty and staff on the Ann Arbor campus who have a disability. A broad definition of disability is foundational to the initiative, which may include mental, physical, and cognitive differences.
Made possible by gift funds, the initiative aligns with existing efforts to strengthen the institutional commitment to an inclusive and accessible campus for all members of the community. In addition, all funded proposals address the Vision 2034 pillars of health and well-being and life-changing education.
A call for proposals went out to the campus in Fall of 2024, with two mechanisms offered: the Emerging Scholars Program supported PhD students or postdoctoral fellows, in partnership with their faculty mentor and the Catalyst Program, led by faculty of any rank and track with up to three years of funding. The provost’s office received 22 proposals that spanned nearly all schools/colleges on campus. Of these, an external panel of reviewers recommended six proposals for funding, one an Emerging Scholar project and the others in the Catalyst Program.
Christopher R. Friese, Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Professor of Nursing, Health Management and Policy commented, “these proposals epitomize the tremendous talent of our U-M community to bring their knowledge and skills to advance understanding. Our office is honored to support this exciting scholarship and eagerly awaits the findings of each project team.”
Projects will begin in early 2025. The Office of the Provost is looking forward to supporting this diverse array of research that will benefit U-M faculty and staff.
The following projects were selected for funding:
(Doing) Disability research from the (disabled) margins: Constructing community and conceptualizing support (Catalyst Program)
Co-PI: Emmalon Davis, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (LSA)
Co-PI: Ann Heffernan, Assistant Professor of Department of Political Science (LSA)
This project identifies—and aims to serve—a unique population of disabled faculty at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, namely, disabled faculty conducting disability-focused research. Not all disabled faculty work on disability-focused research, and not all disability focused research is conducted by disabled faculty. We aim to investigate the concerns of faculty who occupy the intersections of both—faculty who navigate barriers associated with doing work on marginalized and under-supported disability topics while also being disabled. We are particularly interested in exploring the needs of such faculty at the junior level, especially those working in departments and disciplines where disability-focused research is not (yet) an established area of study.
In a set of working papers, we will develop a disability studies-informed conceptual framework for investigating these support needs. In adopting this framework, we join a growing cadre of disability scholars (Minich 2016; Price 2024; Schalk and Kim 2020) who look beyond disability as an identity or individual characteristic, to examine the ways that the concept of disability influences measures of scholarly achievement, opportunities for advancement, and the meanings attached to equity and access. Alongside these conceptual contributions, we aim to establish a durable network of connected scholars. We will host a speaker series and works-in progress workshop, with a special focus on the work of disabled faculty conducting disability focused research at Michigan. These interventions will enable us to advance the profile of disability-focused scholarship, while at the same time gathering and disseminating resources about what faculty with disabilities need to succeed in their careers.
Long COVID, disability, & work: Exploring the lived Experience of U-M faculty and staff on the Ann Arbor campus (Catalyst Program)
Co-PI: Abigail Dumes, Associate Professor & Associate Chair (Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, LSA)
Co-PI: Elizabeth King, Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Equity; Professor of Global Public Health (School of Public Health)
Project Team:
• Nancy Fleischer, Department of Epidemiology (SPH)
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 400 million people worldwide have had Long COVID (LC), a term that describes a range of often disabling symptoms that persist for at least three months after the acute phase of COVID-19 (Al-Aly et al. 2024). In the US alone, federal survey data reveal that around 5.3 percent of all US adults—or 13.7 million people—are “currently experiencing Long COVID” (National Center for Health Statistics 2024). Due to its potential to significantly disrupt activities of daily living, LC can qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and emerging research has shown that LC disproportionately affects individuals with preexisting disabilities (Cohen and Rodgers 2024). Survey data suggests that there is a correlation between LC and “increased odds of work loss” (Venkatesh et al. 2024), but much less is known about the lived experience of LC and disability in the context of work, particularly among higher education employees. Drawing from scholarship in medical anthropology and sociology, disability studies, and public health, this multiphase, multidisciplinary mixed methods project will explore the lived experience of University of Michigan faculty and staff with LC on the Ann Arbor campus, including those whose preexisting disability has been impacted by LC. Through in-depth qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey, this project will shed light on the impact of LC on the work life of U-M faculty and staff and, in doing so, provide opportunities to improve and make more equitable workplace accommodations.
How do neurodivergent faculty use and envision generative AI tools for their academic life? (Emerging Scholars in Disabilities Program)
PI: Hira Jamshed, PhD student (School of Information)
Project Team:
• Robin Brewer, School of Information (faculty mentor)
• Mustafa Naseem, School of Information (faculty mentor)
• Novia Nurain, School of information
The University of Michigan (UofM) is the first university to provide its community with a custom suite of generative AI tools (e.g., U-M GPT and U-M Maizey) to enhance academic experiences. These tools have significant potential to support neurodivergent (ND) individuals by streamlining workflows and reducing cognitive load. However, there remains an open question about their impact on UofM’s ND faculty. Research shows that ND faculty face unique challenges in their academic roles, such as dealing with stigma, navigating varying academic responsibilities, and attaining accommodations. A lack of understanding of these barriers can negatively impact professional growth, collaboration, and inclusion within the academic community. This project seeks to bridge that gap by exploring ND faculty’s day-to-day professional challenges across different activities (e.g., research, teaching, service) and identifying how GenAI tools can provide support.
By utilizing a mixed-methods approach involving surveys, interviews, and co-design workshops, we aim to (1) inform campus-wide DEI initiatives, (2) provide UofM actionable design recommendations to enhance the accessibility of U-M’s GenAI tools, and (3) foster community-building among ND faculty through the co-creation of a shared library of practical strategies and GenAI use cases. The library can serve as a long-term resource for the broader U-M community in addition to helping ND faculty create personalized, accessible environments. The project aims to create a meaningful impact within and beyond the UofM community through presentations and reports across multiple academic venues and campus units over two years.
Disability and research safety infrastructure (Catalyst Program)
PI: Karl Jepsen, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Associate Dean for Research (Michigan Medicine)
Project team:
• Lorraine Currie, Office of the Associate Vice President for Finance
• Kevin Ferrell, Environment, Health & Safety
• Janet Follo, Environment, Health & Safety
• Jackie Hoats-Shields, Office of Research
• Kelsey Keeves, Office of the Vice President for Research
• Yoko Kushner, Environment, Health & Safety
• Danielle Sheen, Environment, Health & Safety
To ensure safety is a priority, engineering, policy, and cultural safeguards, and new accountability plans have been established that together minimize injury risks associated with hazardous research and creative practice activities. Despite these efforts, our infrastructure is not equitably safe. Although our research and creative practice spaces meet ADA standards, individuals with disabilities struggle to work safely in these environments. EHS works with individuals on a case-by-case basis to develop disability accommodation plans to minimize injury risk. These accommodations are limited to those contacting EHS and thus are neither proactive nor comprehensive. Our knowledge gap is that we do not know the range of disabilities and conditions that impede safe working and learning conditions, nor do we fully understand what changes would move UM toward an equitably safe infrastructure. Our goal is to develop a proactive disability infrastructure-accommodation program.
We will address this goal with four aims:
• Aim 1: Establish current barriers in our infrastructure and for whom the barriers may be most relevant;
• Aim 2: Develop accommodation guidelines that can be incorporated into building design, renovations, and other built environment features;
• Aim 3: Establish a new communication channel to ensure equitable and easy access to infrastructure accommodation assistance;
• Aim 4: Develop and disseminate education and scholarship materials that provide resources and best practices for accommodating individuals with disabilities.
Successful completion of these aims will lead to new scholarship on creating and sustaining a proactive and sustainable accommodation program that enables individuals with disabilities to work and learn safely.
What does a quiet working space look like? Visualizing faculty and staff preferences at the U-M (Catalyst Program)
PI: Joy Knoblauch, Associate Professor of Architecture (Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning)
Project team:
• Matias del Campo, sponsored affiliate
• Emerson Delacroix, Department of Health Behavior & Health Equity (SPH)
• Natalie Leonard, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning
• Upali Nanda, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning
We aim to improve inclusivity and accessibility of on and off campus work spaces for faculty and staff by documenting their needs for quiet work spaces. Recognizing that many existing designs overlook the diverse needs of individuals with varying sensory processing styles, our team will gather preferred auditory and visual characteristics of these spaces. Participant responses will inform a diffusion engine to create a variety of workspace options that incorporate different light configurations, materials, and furniture types, beyond standard designs. A subsequent survey of the same faculty and staff will assess how well the newly-generated images align with the faculty and staff’s preferences and functional needs. We will collect demographic information, including physical and / or cognitive disability, age, race and ethnicity, gender, university affiliation, identity and acculturation, country of birthplace, sensory and social preferences, enabling us to tailor recommendations based on diverse backgrounds. Our deliverables will include initial survey results,, a collection of images reflecting the faculty and staff’s preferences, information about whether they match heterogenous desires, and a set of preliminary design guidelines for inclusive workspaces. Lastly, we plan to produce a film of these insights and visual concepts to share with faculty and staff at the University of Michigan and other institutions, fostering a broader conversation about creating adaptable and welcoming working environments.
Build it and they will come – An anti-ableist workplace to enhance our ability to advance health equity for individuals with disabilities (Catalyst Program)
PI: Michael McKee, Professor of Family Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation /Associate Director, Center for Disability Health and Wellness (MM)
Project team:
• Heidi Joshi, Department of Family Medicine (Michigan Medicine)
• Brianna Marzolf, Department of Family Medicine (Michigan Medicine)
• Michelle Meade, Department of Family Medicine/Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Center for Disability Health & Wellness (MM)
• Feranmi Okanlami, Department of Family Medicine/Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation/Urology/Orthopaedic Surgery (Michigan Medicine), Division of Student Life
In the 2016 University of Michigan (U-M) Faculty Campus Climate Survey on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, 3.5% percent of faculty members self-reported a disability. While the survey overlooked staff members and was not specific to Michigan Medicine, it demonstrated ongoing ableist attitudes at U-M. Faculty with disabilities were 73% more likely to report discrimination at U-M compared to their non-disabled peers. In line with DEI 2.0’s goal of a diverse campus where everyone can succeed, we propose a multi-phase project to identify workplace sources of ableism and pilot interventions to cultivate an anti-ableism workplace culture for Michigan Medicine faculty and staff with disabilities. Phase one will include a comprehensive needs assessment surveying all 29 Michigan Medicine departments to gather data on the experiences of faculty and staff members with disabilities. This will be followed by focus groups to both explain survey findings and provide deeper insights into barriers and challenges faced by individuals with disabilities at Michigan Medicine. Phase two will focus on an anti-ableism work culture by doing the following: (a) develop a resource page outlining how to obtain disability-related support and information to thrive in a workplace; (b) offer a mentor-mentee match based on disability and work background; (c) implement an anti-ableism workshop designed for diverse Michigan Medicine settings. These efforts will lead to the development of a systematic understanding of ableism at Michigan Medicine, while also filling a critical knowledge gap at the institution that empowers and educates the community to foster further diversity.