For the new school year, I present a about how I #CripTheLab. Figuring it out on my own was slow going and I wish I had these solutions sooner.

Abled followers: consider how your lab is inaccessible and improve it! Accessibility should not be an afterthought.

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High lab benches are inaccessible to me because when I sit, my feet dangle which increases my back and hip pain. To fix this, I bought an adjustable height step stool to keep under my bench so I can keep my feet flat on the ground.

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Arthritic joints in my wrist and hand make pipetting difficult. To fix this I got pipettes that are more ergonomic. I like the Eppendorf ones (on the left) because the Ovation ones (right) are too heavy for me

An ideal solution? Electronic pipettes

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Pipette controllers (what do other people call these?) are hard to use for similar reasons. To fix this, I found this old one in the lab (left) which has a wide button for my fingers and requires less pressure than the newer Corning ones (right)

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Having to open 2mL tubes can be difficult too. The solution I found for this actually came from a vendor show. One booth was giving away these things that act like bottle openers for tubes!

It requires two hands to use, but it helps when I have to open many racks of tubes

5/

Over the course of grad school, opening bottles (particularly from Corning) got difficult. At home I use rubber grippers to help me open things, and found that using a nitrile glove give me the extra grip I need to get even the most difficult bottles open

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Sitting all the time causes me pain too. To fix this, I bought an adjustable height desktop that I generally use at my desk for my computer, but have on occasion used to set up/label tubes so I can stand and not be bent down over the bench.

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When I do sit, I use a chair with an adjustable back right) so that I can avoid pressure points. Sometimes I’ll borrow a lab mates chair (left) when I need full back support

My desk is also at an outlet so that I can use the heating pad I keep at my desk when necessary

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Keeping a good lab notebook is hard for anyone, but I noticed that on bad days, I was writing less. So, I started keeping an electronic lab notebook it lets me copy and paste DETAILED protocols and experimental conditions/observations without having to rewrite them every time

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One accessibility solution I wish I had: anti-fatigue mats by my bench and other places that I stand for long periods of time. I never realized these could be a reasonable accommodation until recently

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One solution I haven’t been able to find is for the multichannel pipette. They are very heavy and difficult for me to manage even on a good day. Has anyone #DisabledInSTEM found a solution?

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I wish the Office of Accessibility at my school was better because they were unequipped to help accommodate graduate school classes let alone lab spaces. Some of these solutions came from an abled collaborator of mine, who helped me realize how doable some accommodations are
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Asking for accommodations is difficult because they are often met with suspicion or are treated like they are a burden

Getting accommodations is even more difficult (particularly for low SES & non-white students) because it requires a diagnosis & lots of documentation

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The ways I made my lab space accessible for myself won’t work for everyone who is #DisabledInSTEM because the disabled experience varies.

If anyone has any other ways that they #CripTheLab, I would love to hear them!

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