Underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, those with disabilities are frequently discouraged from research. But, by its very nature of innovation, chemistry will always call for people with new and novel perspectives. These include perspectives that persons with disabilities are uniquely poised to provide. As a blind computational chemist, I have faced unique challenges and have had to develop new methods and techniques to overcome them. In this session, I will go into detail about these challenges and share a story of when I used my own "out-of-the-box" methods to discover <i>Helicobacter pylori </i>urease features that my sighted counterparts missed. I do this to add to the toolbox of other scientists with a disability and illustrate the advantages of welcoming new voices and perspectives into the chemistry community.

Unseen advantage: The alternative perspective of a blind computational chemist

256th National Meeting (2018)

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