Diminishing the Data Divide: Interrogating the State of Disability Data Collection and Reporting

Abstract This research paper explored the availability of data for disabled students in postsecondary engineering programs in the U.S (using 1–9). The paper reviewed a variety of sources for the reporting of disability-related demographic information for these programs. Examples of these sources include funder reports (e.g., NSF Diversity and STEM, ASEE By the Numbers) and educational data repositories (e.g., NCSES, IES). We investigated first, if disability is at all included in the reporting of demographic information. If included, we looked at the criteria to count someone as disabled. Implications of our findings include (1) considerations for using existing data sources and (2) recommendations for improving the capture of demographic and identity-related information to include disability and its related nuances. The findings from this study underscore the need for the comprehensive inclusion of disability-related demographic data in postsecondary engineering programs, while highlighting existing challenges and opportunities for improvement in data collection methods. 1 National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, and National Science Foundation, "Diversity and STEM: Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities 2023," NSF 23-315, 2023. 2 U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, "Digest of education statistics, 2021," National Center for Education Statistics, 2021. 3 V. Irwin, K. Wang, T. Tezil, J. Zhang, A. Filbey, J. Jung, F. B. Mann, R. Dilig, S. Parker, T. Nachazel, M. Barnett, and S. Purcell, "Report on the condition of education 2023," National Center for Education Statistics at Institute of Education Sciences, Washington, DC, NCES 2023-144rev, 2023. 4 National Center for Education Statistics NCES, "Education across America," National Center for Education Statistics, Nov. 2023. 5 NSF Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering 2021-2022 Biennial Report to Congress, "Making visible the invisible: Understanding intersectionality," National Science Foundation, 2022 2021. 6 American Society for Engineering Education, "Engineering & engineering technology by the numbers, 2022," American Society of Engineering Education, Washington, DC, 2023. 7 The Spencer Foundation, "The Spencer report 2021," The Spencer Foundation, Jun. 2022. 8 S. Deitz and R. Henke, "Higher education in science and engineering," National Science Board for the National Science Foundation, Nov. 2023. 9 A. Burke, A. Okrent, and K. Hale, "The state of U.S. science and engineering 2022," The National Science Board for the National Science Foundation, Jan. 2022.