Diversity in ability
FEB 17, 2023
Diversity is found to improve a group’s ability to tackle complex, non-routine problems (Phillips, 2014). Diversity is often discussed in terms of race, gender, sexuality, age, and socioeconomic status, but rarely in terms of ability. And even when disability is brought up, it often stops at conventionally "noticeable" disabilities of immobility, hearing, or vision.
But there’s more to disability:
Neuropsychological: depression, anxiety, addiction, insomnia, personality disorder, eating disorder, substance abuse disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder
Motor: tremor, rigidity, gait deficit, turrets, weakness
Cognitive: ADHD, Dyslexia, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Head Injury, Stroke, Aphasia, Autism, Asberger’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome
Health: chronic pain, chronic fatigue, chronic nausea, chronic tinnitis, maldigestion, allergies, immuno-compromised, diseased, injured, epileptic, diabetic
When groups don’t have representation from disabled folks they are at risk of perpetuating ableism, which is the negligent exclusion of those with non-mainstream abilities. In addition, the group will lack the perspective and creativity that comes from brains wired differently.
As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I’ve learned firsthand that the medical field often lacks perspective of the people most reliant on it: the disabled and chronically ill. Stephen Hawking isn’t on the given list of scientists for this assignment but deserves to be discussed for his contributions to science while managing neurodivergency and progressive disability with ALS.
Born in World War II-bound England in 1942, Stephen wasn’t a top student but had abundant curiosity (Famous Scientists, 2018). At age 17 (1959), he reluctantly accepted an invitation to the University of Oxford to study natural sciences, which he worked on erratically and infrequently. He became increasingly clumsy with inconsistent motor control. At age 21 (1962), doctors told him he had an incurable, progressive illness, eventually diagnosing him with ALS. He was told he had two years to live and slid into a dark despair. He eventually resiled with the assistance of Richard Wagner’s operas and falling in love.
Ready to finally pursue his obsession with cosmology, he moved onto the University of Cambridge for his PhD. In addition to his brilliance, Stephen’s neuro-atypicality was exhibited in his frequent outbursts towards his advisor, Fred Hoyle, with whom he publicly debated singularity theorems of space-time.
As lab work became impossible during his declining control of his limbs, he leaned into theoretical work. In the 1970s he published numerous papers on thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics, laying the foundation for topics discussed in my own classes today of chemistry and physics. These are important for my goals of becoming a neuromodulation specializing physician one day.
In the 1980s he traveled frequently for cosmology conferences and guest lectures. However, immunocompromised due to ALS, Stephen contracted pneumonia. His wife was told by doctors that the only way to save his life was perform a tracheostomy surgery, which took away his natural speaking voice. Stephen frustratedly communicated with spelling cards and eyebrow movements until Intel developed a computerized voice synthesizer system. His new communication challenges taught him lessons of brevity so he published A Brief History of Time, a book which made complex science concepts comprehensible to anyone. He published various other accessible books in the 1990s while also pushing the envelope on quantum gravity, wormholes, time travel, and other space-time topics.
During his elderly years, Stephen, opened the 2012 Paralympics, collaborated on popular science media projects, enjoyed a zero-gravity flight, won prizes for his Hawking radiation theories, raised public awareness for ALS, and received the highest civilian award from President Obama. All while prosthetic-bound and speaking through a machine.
In 2018, at age 76, Stephen Hawking’s ashes were laid to rest between Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin (Estate of Stephen Hawking c/o United Agents LLP, n.d.).
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Other disabled scientists that have contributed greatly despite the abilities they were handed:
Harold Brewer Hartley, biochemical engineer – arthritis
Ruth Fairclough: mathematician and statistician - paraplegia
Sara Ranklin: leukocyte and stem cell biologist - dyslexia
Jazmin Scarlett: volcanologist - chronic pain, chronic fatigue
John Ambrose Fleming: electrical engineer - deaf (Royal Society, n.d.).
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References
Phillips, K. W. (2014). How diversity makes us smarter. Scientific American, 311(4), 43-47.
Famous Scientists. (2018, August 17). Stephen Hawking - Biography, Facts and Pictures. https://www.famousscientists.org/stephen-hawking/
Santi Visalli/Getty Images. (n.d.). Stephen Hawking. Biography. https://www.biography.com/scientists/stephen-hawking
Estate of Stephen Hawking c/o United Agents LLP. (n.d.). Stephen Hawking Biography. https://www.hawking.org.uk/biography
Royal Society. (n.d.). Celebrating scientists with disabilities https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/scientists-with-disabilitie