Recruiting & Retaining Students with Disabilities in Engineering, Science and Mathematics

妇女、少数民族和残疾人参与科学和技术问题工作队建议采取行动，增加残疾人参与科学和工程。到目前为止，这些教育改革的大部分注意力都放在了大学预科的科学和数学教育上，但如果要实现这一目标，学院和大学必须参与进来。该项目的目标是在华盛顿大学的工程和科学项目中招募和留住残疾学生。该项目包括四个部分：(1)面向中等水平残疾学生的寄宿暑期科学项目；(2)为参与的暑期学生提供指导计划，该计划将主要依赖于全年与科学家（其中许多人有残疾）进行基于计算机的互动；(3)针对大学教职员工和当地大学预科科学教师的“多样性意识”项目；(4)信息传播计划，包括向西北地区的科学和数学教师推广。将以各种形式制作和分发招收和留住残疾学生的材料——录像带；录音;电脑磁盘;可透过互联网存取的电子文件；还有标准的、大号的、盲文的宣传册。会议将提供一个机会，分发征聘/留用材料以及专门为夏季方案编制的材料。它们将被其他学校采用。每季为教职员工、学生和当地科学教师举办的“多样性意识”研讨会，旨在提高对残疾学生面临的障碍的认识，并提出创造性和实用的方法，为残疾学生提供获得教学和校园服务的机会。​该项目开发的方法将成为华盛顿大学其他学院以及全国其他校园招募和留住残疾学生的模式。

The Task Force on Women, Minorities and the Handicapped in Science and Technology recommended that actions be taken to increase the participation of persons with disabilities in science and engineering. To this point, most attention to these educational reforms has been given to precollege science and mathematics education, but colleges and universities must be involved if this goal is to be reach. The goals of this project are to recruit and retain students with disabilities in the engineering and science programs at the University of Washington. The project includes four components: (1) A live-in summer science program for secondary-level students who have disabilities; (2) A mentoring program for the participating summer students that will rely heavily on year-round computer-based interactions with scientists ( many of whom have disabilities); (3) A "diversity awareness" program for university faculty and staff and local pre-college science teachers; and (4) An information dissemination program that will include outreach to science and math teachers in the northwest region. Materials for recruiting and retaining students with disabilities will be produced and distributed in a variety of forms -- videotape; audiotape; computer disks; electronic files accessible over the Internet network; and written brochures in standard and large print, and braille. A conference will provide an opportunity for dissemination of materials for recruitment/retention as well as those developed specifically for the summer program. They will be adaptable for use by other schools. The quarterly "diversity awareness" workshops for faculty, staff, students, and local science teachers, are intended to increase the awareness of barriers faced by students with disabilities and to present creative and practical approaches for providing access to instruction and campus services to students with disabilities. Methods developed in this project will serve as models for recruiting and retaining students with disabilities in other colleges at the University of Washington as well as on other campuses across the country.