{"id":23853,"date":"2018-11-02T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T14:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=23853"},"modified":"2018-11-05T13:12:29","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T18:12:29","slug":"ucf-physics-alum-highlights-the-importance-of-workplace-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-physics-alum-highlights-the-importance-of-workplace-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Physics Alum Highlights the Importance of Workplace Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

By: Nicole\u00a0Dudenhoefer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For many college graduates, finding a job within their field can seem just as daunting as earning a degree. But that task can be even more difficult for people with disabilities, considering last year\u2019s unemployment rate for the group (9.2 percent) was more than twice the rate of those with no disabilities (4.2 percent), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n

The first step to bridging this gap often starts with providing accessibility in its many forms to those who need it. Physicist\u00a0Michael Lodge \u201918 Ph.D., who has used a wheelchair since he was 8 years old and is now a nanotechnology research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is just one example of the difference that accessibility can make.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience is fundamental to the pursuit of knowledge. It is how we have advanced as a species,\u201d Lodge says. \u201cWhy should someone be excluded from a tradition as old as humanity itself simply because they\u2019re disabled?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lodge was left paraplegic as a child after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor embedded in his spine. Since then, the Sanford native has used a wheelchair to navigate the world. While Lodge says he has learned to adapt to the challenges he faces, he encountered a major obstacle as he began to do experimental research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blow to the ego when your disability curtails your options, however it\u2019s downright devastating when your disability is the sole thing preventing you from seizing a great opportunity that has been handed to you,\u201d Lodge says.<\/p>\n

Gaining Experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After coming to UCF in 2007, Lodge began working as a graduate student in Professor of\u00a0Physics\u00a0<\/a>Masahiro Ishigami\u2019s lab. In order to make sure Lodge could make use of the space, Ishigami worked with him to make the lab more accessible by moving things to a reachable distance and allow more room for the wheelchair\u2019s movements. Improving accessibility for Lodge came naturally to Ishigami, as his father was a medical specialist who provides rehabilitation to patients who have been disabled by injuries, diseases, conditions or disorders. \u00a0The American Disability Act defines a disability as \u201ca physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI use to tell Mike my weakness is I can\u2019t actually see that he\u2019s different from anyone else,\u201d Ishigami says. \u201cFor some people this is an insurmountable problem. For me, this is something we have to solve; it\u2019s something I was familiar with. For me, he was just another person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lodge immediately demonstrated tremendous talent, Ishigami says. Within a few months he was able to teach himself to create graphene, a single-atom layer of graphite that is very difficult to make. Ishigami then arranged for him to participate in other research projects, but the lack of accessibility in other labs prevented Lodge from gaining experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized at that point if he\u2019s going to have a career in [the scientific field], he\u2019s going to have to engineer solutions so that he can improve accessibility himself,\u201d Ishigami says.<\/p>\n

Engineering Solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

\u201c[The wheelchair] is essentially the difference between me being an independent person in the lab and me having to shelve projects until someone can help me do something mundane, like reach a canister of glue on a high shelf or look at a sample through the slightly too-high window on a vacuum chamber,\u201d Lodge says.<\/p>\n

At UCF, Ishigami continued to support Lodge\u2019s experimental-research efforts and eventually was able to get a\u00a0custom-designed $14,000 wheelchair<\/a>, with the cost covered entirely by the wheelchair company, a grant from the National Science Foundation and UCF\u2019s\u00a0College of Sciences<\/a>. The motorized wheelchair allows Lodge to increase his elevation by 11 inches, which enables him to use special microscopes and other tools.<\/p>\n

Expanding Opportunities<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Eventually, Lodge was able to use the wheelchair abroad for the first time when he was selected from a group of 199 candidates for a two-month research project in Australia at the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes. There, he got to enjoy the beautiful sites of region, while building important connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in and around the lab [in Australia] were very personable and knowledgeable, and they made it easy to really network with other scientists. In fact, I met my current boss while I was working there,\u201d Lodge says.<\/p>\n

After graduating in the summer, Lodge was able to keep the wheelchair Ishigami acquired for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think many of the issues that disabled people have with pursuing a career in science, and perhaps other aspects of life, is that they focus on the reasons why they would inconvenience or be rejected by a professor, a group, or their field of interest as a whole. The truth is that these perceived barriers are usually way less serious than they think,\u201d Lodge says. \u201cMasa [Ishigami] was not only able to look past my disability, he was considerate of it and actively made my life easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now working in his field, Lodge has become a researcher at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. There he uses the skills he learned in Ishigami\u2019s lab and in Australia, to study the electronic properties of materials that conduct electricity in unusual ways. The science he is developing will be used for future electronics that will be created over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Nicole\u00a0Dudenhoefer For many college graduates, finding a job within their field can seem just as daunting as earning a degree. But that task can be even more difficult for people with disabilities, considering last year\u2019s unemployment rate for the group (9.2 percent) was more than twice the rate of those with no disabilities (4.2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":23855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,38,14,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-breaking-news","category-physics-departments","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Physics Alum Highlights the Importance of Workplace Accessibility - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-physics-alum-highlights-the-importance-of-workplace-accessibility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Physics Alum Highlights the Importance of Workplace Accessibility - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Nicole\u00a0Dudenhoefer For many college graduates, finding a job within their field can seem just as daunting as earning a degree. 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