�Lisa B. Elliot, Ph.D. & Robb Dooling
RIT/NTID Center on Access Technology
NTID Foundation Board Meeting, May 4, 2012
Rochester, NY 
�Who We Are
�Supported by the National Science Foundation, HRD #1127955
�3-5 year project
�Leadership team
�Lisa Elliot, PI
�James DeCaro, Co-PI
�E William Clymer, Co-PI

�Campus Partners
-Camden County College, Blackwood, NJ
-Cornell University, Ithaca NY


�Background: 
Two prior NSF grants
�Summit to Create a Cyber-Community to Advance Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals in STEM (OCI-0749253, PI E.W. Clymer)
�Three-day conference with 50 national and regional leaders, including D/HH students in the field of access and support service provision for postsecondary D/HH students in STEM programs
�Report on current state of remote interpreting and captioning 
�Recommendations outlining desirable characteristics of a multimedia cyberinfrastructure to provide remote communication support for D/HH students in STEM mainstreamed classrooms 
�

�Background: 
Two prior NSF grants
�Testing the Concept of a Virtual Alliance for Deaf and Hard of Hearing STEM Students at the Postsecondary Level,  (HRD-0927586, PI E.W. Clymer)
�Focus groups and needs assessments 
�Demographic information 
�Establish partnerships for this proposal 

�Goal and Objectives
�Goal
�Increase the graduation rates of postsecondary 
D/HH STEM majors in the long term 
�Objectives
� document and disseminate a description of the process of creating a model VAC for replication 
� increase the GPAs and retention rates of D/HH students in STEM majors.


�Components of the VAC
�Remote support services (Years 1-5)
�Tutoring
�Mentoring by D/HH STEM professionals
�Remote access services (Years 4-5)
�Captioning
�Interpreting
�Social networking
�Electronic resource collection
�Progress to Date
�Remote tutoring 
�8 students/5 tutors at RIT (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Math, & Physics)
�Using Google+ Hangouts as platform
�Building Web Presence (www.dhhvac.org)
�Recruiting mentors

�Remote Tutoring 
Using Google+ Hangouts
�Remote Tutoring 
Using Google+ Hangouts
�Summer Plans
�Building the website using Drupal 7
�Making website accessible
�Gathering accessible media links (e.g. STEM captioned videos, STEM dictionaries in ASL)
�Creating guides for tutors, students, mentors