RDE-FRI: Supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Undergraduate Students in STEM Field Settings with Remote Speech-to-Text Services

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The project RDE-FRI: Supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Undergraduate Students in STEM Field Settings with Remote Speech-to-Text Services, is a 24-month, $299,995 dollar award funded by the Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program's Focused Research Initiatives (FRI) track. This project is addressing the unmet need for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) students to have wireless access to real-time speech-to-text services (RT-STS) in varied outdoor and indoor settings. The primary goal of this project is to develop assistive technology that allows D/HH undergraduate students to view RT-STS in remote field science settings using a handheld device, such as a cellular phone or personal digital assistant. A secondary project goal is to evaluate the extent that remote speech-to-text services aid students' communication and learning in remote science field settings. This highly qualified and experienced team, which is led by a Deaf researcher, is conducting work that builds on the team's current NSF-funded project (0633928) and two (2) U.S. Education Department projects (H327A050064-06; H327A070085) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The project team is working with 38 D/HH undergraduate students from RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf to conduct development, field-testing and modifications for the RT-STS; 16 of the students also have low vision so that the accessibility of the device for students who have vision and hearing impairments is being evaluated. The largest portion of field-testing is being conducted when D/HH undergraduate students participate in the field visits for their environmental science courses. In addition to collecting data from instructor and student users during and after real-world field visits, the team is conducting focus groups regarding the feasibility and usability of the new RT-STS devices. A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the impact of the RT-STS on student learning focuses on the changes in students' STEM content knowledge as a result of using the new technology. The project addresses (3) of the FRI track goals: To encourage research and development of specific but utilitarian assistive technologies that will help persons with disabilities pursue careers in STEM; to build tools for students with disabilities that can be quickly developed and effectively deployed in the educational environment; and to add value to the education of persons with disabilities in STEM by implementing the use of technologies in educational environments. This project includes a formative and summative project evaluation plan with an experienced third-party evaluator, Dr. Martha Gaustad from Bowling Green State University. The project dissemination plan includes expected presentations at the annual conference of the American Association of Higher Education and Disability, the American Educational Research Association and the Society of College Science Teachers, as well as website materials, planned articles in peer-reviewed professional journals, and sharing results with post-secondary institutions that enroll large numbers of D/HH students currently using STS for STEM: Louisiana State University, Miami-Dade College, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Jacksonville State University and Bergen Community College.