DHHVAC / NTID CAT - NSF Enrichment Grant

The National Science Foundation awarded the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) a $199,585 eighteen-month Enrichment grant to investigate the creation of a virtual support network for deaf/hard-of-hearing college students around the country enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. The project, Testing the Concept of a Virtual Alliance for Deaf and Hard of Hearing STEM Students at the Postsecondary Level, began on September 1, 2009 and concluded on February 28, 2011. The grant was used to plan for a "virtual alliance" to support and connect STEM students through a cyberinfrastructure never before available.

Professor E. William Clymer, Associate Director of NTID's Center on Access Technology, will serve as the project PI at 10% effort (Calendar Year). Clymer's background is in instructional design and evaluation, with expertise in use of technology in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. He has organized four International Symposia on Educational Technology and Education of the Deaf, held at NTID. Clymer also serves as Project Manager for the Postsecondary Education Network - International, funded by The Nippon Foundation of Japan and housed at NTID.

Co-PI Gary Behm, 25% effort during the initial six months of the project period, will take the lead in the modeling of the components of the prototype system. Behm is a deaf engineer at IBM who received his baccalaureate and masters degrees in the mainstream, currently serving as a loaned executive at NTID/RIT working in the Center on Access Technology and the department of Engineering Studies. At IBM, he is a delivery project manager in the Rapid Application Development Engineering System. Behm has four patent disclosures under review, seven disclosures filed, and three patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office, and has presented over 20 scientific and technical papers at various professional conferences. If his responsibilities at IBM will allow, he will continue to consult on this project for the remaining 12 months of the project after he returns to IBM.

Co-PI Peter Lalley, 25% effort (summer, 2010), will contribute his knowledge and expertise in support services for deaf and hard-of-hearing postsecondary students to the project. Lalley is a professor in the department of Science and Mathematics at RIT/NTID, and director of the science and engineering support team in this department. He has been PI or Co-PI on seven grants directly related to supporting deaf and hard-of-hearing students in postsecondary education, including the NSF-funded RDE-FRI Speech to Text Systems: Comparative Analysis of Text Generation and Display Methods. Dr. Lalley teaches in the department of Biological Sciences at RIT and in the Master of Science in Secondary Education program at NTID.

Alliances for Students with Disabilities in STEM is one of three tracks Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program at the National Science Foundation. The other two tracks are the Research track and the Demonstration, Enrichment or Dissemination track.

The Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program seeks to broaden the participation and achievement of people with disabilities in all fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and associated professional careers. The RDE program has been funding this objective since 1994 under the prior name "Program for Persons with Disabilities." Particular emphasis is placed on contributing to the knowledge base by addressing disability related differences in secondary and post-secondary STEM learning and in the educational, social and pre-professional experiences that influence student interest, academic performance, retention in STEM degree programs, STEM degree completion, and career choices. Projects also investigate effective practices for transitioning students with disabilities across critical academic junctures, retaining students in undergraduate and graduate STEM degree programs, and graduating students with STEM associate, baccalaureate and graduate degrees.

Research project results inform the delivery of innovative, transformative and successful practices employed by the Alliances for Students with Disabilities in STEM to increase the number of students with disabilities completing associate, undergraduate and graduate degrees in STEM and to increase the number of students with disabilities entering our nation's science and engineering workforce. Alliances engage multiple institutions of higher education and secondary school systems to work as a team to employ evidenced-based practices and promising interventions to advance students across critical academic junctures, to degree completion, and into the workforce or graduate STEM degree programs.

RDE projects contribute to closing the gaps occurring for people with disabilities in STEM fields by successfully disseminating findings, project evaluation results, and proven good practices and products to the public.

Additional information on the NSF Research in Disabilities Education program can be found on the program's website at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5482, or in the program solicitation for RDE proposals http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09508/nsf09508.htm.

RDE Alliances:

• East Alliance for Students with Disabilities in STEM-Phase 2
• AccessSTEM: The Northwest Alliance for Students with Disabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-Phase II (AccessSTEM2), http://www.washington.edu/doit/Stem/
• MIND Alliance for Minority Students with Disabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
• Ohio's STEM Ability Alliance (OSAA)
• Midwest Alliance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, http://stemmidwest.org
• Reaching the Pinnacle
• Pacific Alliance for Supporting Individuals with Disabilities in STEM Fields Partnership, http://www.cds.hawaii.edu/pacificalliance/
• Building an Alliance for New Careers in STEM (KC-BANCS): A Collaborative Model for the Inclusion of Youth and Veterans with Disabilities, http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0929212
• Alabama Alliance for Students with Disabilities in STEM

This NSF Enrichment grant falls under the umbrella of activities of the Center on Access Technology at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Center on Access Technology - To address the unique challenges of utilizing or adapting new technologies for use in postsecondary educational settings, RIT, through NTID, established the Center on Access Technology for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, in March 2006. The Center is charged to investigate, evaluate, and report on the most effective and efficient use of access technologies and train individuals in their use in order to accelerate the widespread implementation of best practices within deaf education at the postsecondary level. The Center is focusing its efforts on technologies that have a high likelihood of improving access to postsecondary educational opportunities for deaf students within the next several years. Based on research conducted in 2005, four areas of focus were identified:

• Classroom access technologies
• Mobile technologies
• Audio and sound technologies of interest to hard-of-hearing persons
• Training and evaluation services

NTID - Is one of the eight colleges of RIT, enrolls more than 1,450 deaf and hard-of-hearing students, close to 500 of whom are in the academic mainstream (nearly 75% of these in STEM curriculum), supported by NTID interpreters, real-time captionists, tutors and counselors. The university has provided the largest mainstream program for deaf students in the world for the past 40 years. The institute employs more than 120 sign language interpreters and more than 50 real-time captionists, and, very importantly, has conducted extensive research on interpreting and captioning in tertiary education.

PEPNet - The Postsecondary Education Programs Network (PEPNet) is the primary partner for this project. PEPNet is a national network of four regional centers funded for over 12 years by the United States Department of Education that provides resources, information, in-service training, and expertise to enhance educational opportunities for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. The network works with services providers in two- and four-year colleges, universities, secondary education programs, community rehabilitation programs, continuing education programs, adult basic education programs, and vocational and technical training programs.

Focus group surveys were conducted with the PEPNet outreach coordinators on October 6 and October 7, 2009. As a starting point for group discussions, the following questions were asked of the participants:

• What are the barriers to education in STEM by students who are deaf and hard of hearing?
• What do you feel are the benefits associated with creating a cyberinfrastructure to support STEM students who are deaf or hard of hearing?
• Do you feel a virtual cyberinfrastructure could be created to provide:
  • Social networking?
  • Remote interpreting and captioning?
  • Tutoring and other support?
• What do you believe are the most significant challenges associated with creating a cyberinfrastructure to support STEM postsecondary students who are deaf or hard of hearing?
• What features would you like to see incorporated in a cyberinfrastructure system? What features would be of benefit to you?
• Do you know of any colleges or universities in your states that might have significant numbers of STEM students who are deaf or hard of hearing?
• Do you have any additional comments that will aid in developing this proposal?

A full transcript of the two sessions was recorded, and the transcripts were analyzed by two researchers at NTID, Dr. Gerard Walter (a quantitative researcher) and Dr. Susan Foster (a qualitative researcher). Their reports are available by clicking on the following links: Dr. Walter's report | Dr. Foster's report.

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