Disabled and neurodivergent perception, community, and identity in the biosciences: A narrative review and call to action

Abstract

Disabled people are present in the biological sciences, yet efforts are ongoing to build truly welcoming and anti-ableist biology community spaces. We undertake this narrative review and call to action on disabled and neurodivergent perception, community, and identity in the biosciences to bring attention to the disabled biologist community and to highlight areas of support for disabled scientists. This work serves as an introductory paper for the special issue from the 2026 SICB symposium of the same name. The narrative literature review component uses search terms related to disability identity and biological sciences to explore the status of bioscience and biology education literature, with a focus on the last 25 years. We use a Critical Disability Theory framework to underscore disability as identity, and to further explore the social dynamics of disability inclusion or exclusion in STEM. We summarize the literature, its potential impact, and its recommendations for building more welcoming spaces for disabled people in biology. Our call to action synthesizes what has been recommended while providing further areas of work which can build disabled biology community and communities of care.