Have you ever had one of those days where you think, “There has to be a word for this”? Now imagine, you pick up a dictionary and find that it’s in a language you can’t understand. You move on to the next one and, thankfully, you can read it, but instead of a word you just find a lengthy definition describing the concept you want the name to. You’re confident the word exists–it just feels out of reach. But it’s all just hypotheticals… right? This is the reality for many Deaf and Hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals. Systemic barriers often prevent DHH individuals from fully participating in science, making it hard for DHH individuals to keep up compared to their hearing peers. This is one of many factors that contribute to the gap in academic achievement that is present between DHH children and those that are hearing. Only recently has more advanced STEM terminology started to be incorporated in American Sign Language (ASL) due to a massive effort from deaf scientists to develop signs.
Having early exposure to vocabulary makes all the difference to children as they develop their communication skills and expand their knowledge. Studies have shown that DHH children also must be immersed in language in both English print and in ASL to develop communication skills. Yet, in class, students have few resources available to them in ASL, especially when it comes to STEM material. Limiting their exposure to ASL actively sets back their first-language acquisition, setting them behind peers that have resources readily available in their first-language. Consequently, research has found that their classroom achievement declines, hurting their future academic success with only around 0.8% of STEM majors who are DHH.
Dr. Anne Kearney Logan, who recently earned her Ph.D. in Horticulture from Cornell University, was born profoundly deaf, with only 5% residual hearing. Despite this, she grew up constantly active, spending her days outdoors and immersing herself in the world around her. The world was full of endless discoveries and she saw the potential to learn even more–she aspired to become a scientist! Fueled by her passion, she enrolled in many STEM courses all the way through college and beyond. Anne utilized an ASL interpreter to help her navigate in a general education setting, but her journey through STEM was not without challenges. Quickly, Anne ran into one of the biggest barriers that DHH learners face: the lack of ASL signs for specialized terminology in these courses.
This required real time sign language creation with her ASL interpreters as they often had to fingerspell big words. One example is “transpiration”, the process of water evaporating from leaves, which had no ASL sign. Anne developed a single sign for “transpiration”, which is now signed by making a fist with the left hand and bounding the right hand off in a wavy motion. This waving of the right hand symbolizes the rising water vapor. What is now a comprehensive and effortless sign used to result in up to a 2 minute gap between the content she was learning and the content of the lecturer’s words.
Another barrier she faced was a lack of understanding from some of her professors. One professor refused t o slow down to allow the ASL interpreters to interpret. Consequently, Anne struggled to grasp specific concepts. While her peers easily understood the language, Anne had to mentally translate from English to ASL to make things stick. While there were discouraging moments throughout her formal education, the goal she set for herself kept her going.
Sadly, for many others, the obstacles to learning prove too much to overcome. With few role models and fewer resources at their hands, it is no surprise that DHH students show lower self-efficacy than their hearing counterparts. A survey of DHH students revealed a widely-held belief that a STEM career did not fit them. Many DHH individuals find themselves discouraged from pursuing STEM due to the many barriers they face.
This had to change.
With the effort of many deaf scientists, including Anne, and students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ASL Aspire was created. ASL Aspire is the first game- based platform that delivers science in ASL STEM based vocabulary to DHH children through fun and interactive games. It adds to the diverse tools that are increasingly being shared via social media to help close the leaky pipeline in STEM fields from Kindergarten to college and beyond.
ASL Aspire’s diverse teams work closely with DHH professionals in STEM to provide students with the vocabulary necessary for future success. Our mission is to increase accessibility and awareness for underrepresented groups and offer the resources that create opportunities for the DHH community, helping them overcome educational and personal barriers.
ASL Aspire is one of the growing number of companies and organizations that are opening doors to a brighter future in STEM for DHH individuals. By providing the resources we aid in building the confidence in DHH individuals needed to change both the statistics and their own lives.
Mark, a Deaf mathematician, and Anirban, a Deaf ASL interpreter—both currently working with ASL Aspire—share their opinions on how we as a community can ensure that Deaf scientists have equal access to communications and opportunities within scientific settings.
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