Experiential education of deaf and hard of hearing students in the lab with non-signing advisors

ABSTRACT

The value of experiential lab work can be measured by its ability to transform a student’s self-identity related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Successful experiences help students shed notions of self-incompatibility with STEM and can often motivate a research career as they develop as a scientist. However, students of diverse and underrepresented populations, such as the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), may or may not reap these same benefits given the potential for isolation in lab settings. We conducted two surveys aimed at capturing the perspectives of students who are DHH who worked in a lab as part of an undergraduate research or internship experience and those of non-signing advisors who oversaw advisees who are DHH. Students and advisors were asked to provide strategies that they used to facilitate communication access and to rank the perceived effectiveness of those strategies. Students placed a strong emphasis on the benefits of sign language and interpreting while advisors valued written communication. For the majority of experiences, both groups indicated that advisors were actively engaged with students’ training and that the experiences themselves were rewarding and productive.

KEYWORDS:

• Deaf and hard-of-hearing students
• advisors
• undergraduate research
• internship
• communication strategies
• lab training

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mary Ellen Tait and Shyrl Scalice in the NTID Center on Employment (Rochester, NY) for help with student and advisor recruitment. Additional thanks to Drs. Peter Hauser and Scott Smith (NTID/RIT) for help with the recruitment of graduate research, undergraduate research and summer research students. Special thanks to Drs. Caroline Solomon and Derek Braun (Gallaudet University) for help in recruiting both summer research and internship students and advisors to participate and Dr. Lisa Elliot (NTID/RIT) for a critical reading and review of the manuscript. This study was supported by a Faculty Evaluation and Development (FEAD) grant (to A.U.G.).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Austin U. Gehret

Austin U. Gehret, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Science and Mathematics department of NTID, Rochester Institute of Technology. His research interests include identifying best practices for the delivery of remote instruction to students who are deaf and hard of hearing, classroom interventions designed to enhance student comprehension of biochemistry concepts, and the characterisation of proteins in budding yeast that enhance biofuel production.

Lea V. Michel

Lea Vacca Michel, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her research uses biochemical and biophysical techniques to study the roles of proteins in disease, including sepsis, ear infections, and cataracts. She strives to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities (including those who are d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing) in science and math.

Jessica W. Trussell

Jessica W. Trussell, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Masters of Secondary Education for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, USA and a member of the Center for Education Research Partnerships. Her research focuses on effective vocabulary instructional strategies, specifically Latin and Greek roots and affixes, for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.