Edward Clymer Rochester Institute of Technology
The goalis to conduct a three day summit conference of 50 leaders in the field of support service provision for postsecondary deaf students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. Fifteen of these experts will be drawn from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Greater Rochester Metropolitan Area. The primary outcome will be a report on the current state of the art of on-line remote interpreting and captioning. Additionally, a recommendation report will be prepared that will specify the characteristics of a multimedia cyberinfrastructure that provides remote communication support for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in STEM mainstreamed classrooms.
Objectives. ? Identify key participants from the following constituency groups, with one person to serve as facilitator of each group. In addition, each group will be assigned a professional trained in conducting focus groups to serve as a co-facilitator. No more than 8 persons will be selected for each constituency group (representing various ethnic, racial and gender groups). o Students who are studying in mainstreamed STEM programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels o Representatives of STEM faculty who will teach deaf and hard of hearing students utilizing the new on-line remote interpreting and captioning systems o Coordinators of support services, to represent the needs of undergraduate and graduate STEM universities with the perspective of the challenges of providing effective and efficient delivery of services on a continuing basis o Educational captioners and interpreters, with sufficient experience to represent issues of quality of service and technical challenges of offering their services remotely o Educational, linguistic and sign language researchers/developers, with sufficient experience in deaf postsecondary education, and with proven history of conducting meaningful research and evaluation efforts in the field of classroom communication and support o Computer network specialists, including cyberinfrastructure, networking, user interface and video experts. These individuals will offer a perspective on the state of the art regarding the cyberinfrastructure as applied to the delivery of remote interpreting and captioning system within a postsecondary environment. o Representatives of funding sources, including NSF, to observe the Summit and offer a perspective regarding potential work products
