Mentoring Students with Disabilities in Research Experiences

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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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