Make research accessible. It benefits all chemists

This year’s edition of C&EN’s Trailblazers celebrates 12 chemists with disabilities who are pushing the boundaries of their fields. They’re designing new drugs, transforming biological waste into high-performance battery materials, and probing the quantum world, among other advances. They’re also rethinking how we do science. Throughout the issue, you’ll read about how each Trailblazer has had to adapt their workplace or work style to accommodate their disabilities. Sometimes these adaptations have resulted in new ways of approaching a scientific problem: converting data into sound can unveil patterns that aren’t obvious to the naked eye, for instance, while more flexible work hours give people space and time for novel ideas to blossom. Chemists with disabilities also face massive challenges, particularly as the Donald J. Trump administration defunds efforts to make US science more inclusive. Among the thousands of federal grants that have been terminated since Trump took office on Jan. 20 are projects dedicated to increasing accessibility in science. Research projects—and even entire organizations—with the mission of reducing barriers for scientists with disabilities are suddenly in funding limbo. The resulting chaos dampened the mood at the recent American Chemical Society fall meeting, Trailblazers’ guest editor, Mona Minkara, told us when we sat down for a chat in Washington, DC’s convention center in August. In her view, these cuts likely stem from a misguided yet prevailing belief that people with disabilities are a burden and that accommodating them reduces the rigor of science. But keeping research inaccessible certainly doesn't do science any favors. Instead, it risks