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SPEAKER: Mentoring
students with disabilities
in research experiences.
RICHARD LADNER: My
name is Richard Ladner.
I'm the principal investigator
for access computing,
an NSF-funded project with
the goal of increasing
the participation and
success of students
with disabilities
in computing fields.
Every summer, we
support students
in the Computing Research
Association's Distributed
Research Experiences for
Undergraduates program.
Many of these students
continue their research
and go on to graduate school.
ERIN HOWARD: Hi, everyone.
My name is Erin Howard.
I use she and they
pronouns, and I
am a student at Western
Washington University.
I applied a lot of statistical
analysis via Python
to programmatically pre-classify
over 275,000 light curves
from stars in the Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite
database.
EMELIA BELDON: Hi.
My name is Emilia Beldon, and
I am from Gallaudet University.
The project is about
improving live captioning
and teleconferencing, like
Zoom, Hangouts, and Meet.
When I first saw the
project, I thought, yes,
what better than to help
improve the accessibility
of the deaf community and
those who need access?
For me, mentors were what
helped me be successful
in computing and the IT field.
They have disabilities
themselves.
They can't hear, can't speak,
but that didn't stop them
from being successful.
BRIANNA WEIMER: Hi.
My name is Brianna Weimer,
and I am currently a student
at the University of Alabama.
My disability is ADHD.
And so just for
me, it's helped me
develop a passion of
what I want to work in
and develop that kind of
determination behind it.
My project over the
summer was basically
about making a
biofeedback game that
increases emotional regulation
through respiration techniques
and uses positive reinforcement.
ERIN HOWARD: The advice I'd
give to research mentors working
with students who
have a disability,
be patient and be kind of
aware of their situation.
EMELIA BELDON: Also, be sure
to check in with the student
frequently and make sure they
have access to information
as well as be able
to communicate.
BRIANNA WIMER: Take
your time with them.
Allow them to open
up to you about it.
Don't kind of push for it.
Just allow them to get
close enough to you.
Because when they do, they
will feel comfortable enough
to talk to you about
their disability
and talk to you
about what they need
as a student with
disability to help them.
And then once you
know that information,
you can help them to the
best of your abilities.
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