Marion is a Senior Lecturer (Biomedical Engineering) at Glasgow University, they are also an active member of UCU Scotland, for whom they were the Equality Officer.

1. What interested you in doing research relating to disability / the DISC project? 

I am a disabled academic working in STEM. I am committed to change, overcoming injustice etc. Access to STEM has a lot of benefits – careers, daily living e.g. budgeting, participating in public policy debates which combine technology and ethics on e.g. GMOs, nuclear weapons. STEM is also interesting in itself. There are still various barriers to participation in STEM by disabled people – inaccessible labs, field work and representations e.g. of equations, negative attitudes, misunderstandings about health and safety and using it deliberately to keep disabled people out.  

2. What are your main concerns for disability research / the DISC project? 

Too little involvement of disabled people. Obtaining results which are not applied to achieve positive change. Not being taken seriously.   

3. What are your hopes for disability research / the DISC project?

Obtaining knowledge to support positive change, great involvement of disabled people in disability research, including leading it. However, there is a need for both visions and realism as to what any one project can achieve.  

4. How do you think the current pandemic will affect disability research / the DISC project? 

Varying ways. Clearly face to face research will be difficult for a while. There will be both Covid-19 specific funding and possibly a lack of other funding. The pandemic will give rise to new research topics, including related to disabled people – both similarly and differently from non-disabled people.  

5. If you could give one message to people about disability right now, what would it be?

Disabled people are very diverse, many of us have had to use a lot of ingenuity to overcome barriers. This ingenuity could be used in other ways to benefits society, as well as disabled people.