„Lisa B. Elliot, Ph.D. & Robb Dooling RIT/NTID Center on Access Technology NTID Foundation Board Meeting, May 4, 2012 Rochester, NY „Who We Are „Supported by the National Science Foundation, HRD #1127955 „3-5 year project „Leadership team ŠLisa Elliot, PI ŠJames DeCaro, Co-PI ŠE William Clymer, Co-PI „Campus Partners -Camden County College, Blackwood, NJ -Cornell University, Ithaca NY „Background: Two prior NSF grants „Summit to Create a Cyber-Community to Advance Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals in STEM (OCI-0749253, PI E.W. Clymer) ŠThree-day conference with 50 national and regional leaders, including D/HH students in the field of access and support service provision for postsecondary D/HH students in STEM programs ŠReport on current state of remote interpreting and captioning ŠRecommendations outlining desirable characteristics of a multimedia cyberinfrastructure to provide remote communication support for D/HH students in STEM mainstreamed classrooms Ź „Background: Two prior NSF grants „Testing the Concept of a Virtual Alliance for Deaf and Hard of Hearing STEM Students at the Postsecondary Level, (HRD-0927586, PI E.W. Clymer) ŠFocus groups and needs assessments ŠDemographic information ŠEstablish partnerships for this proposal „Goal and Objectives „Goal ŠIncrease the graduation rates of postsecondary D/HH STEM majors in the long term „Objectives Š document and disseminate a description of the process of creating a model VAC for replication Š increase the GPAs and retention rates of D/HH students in STEM majors. „Components of the VAC „Remote support services (Years 1-5) ŠTutoring ŠMentoring by D/HH STEM professionals „Remote access services (Years 4-5) ŠCaptioning ŠInterpreting „Social networking „Electronic resource collection „Progress to Date „Remote tutoring Š8 students/5 tutors at RIT (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Math, & Physics) ŠUsing Google+ Hangouts as platform „Building Web Presence (www.dhhvac.org) „Recruiting mentors „Remote Tutoring Using Google+ Hangouts „Remote Tutoring Using Google+ Hangouts „Summer Plans „Building the website using Drupal 7 „Making website accessible „Gathering accessible media links (e.g. STEM captioned videos, STEM dictionaries in ASL) „Creating guides for tutors, students, mentors