Supporting deaf and hard-of-hearing researchers requires thought and planning from colleagues, but science benefits greatly, says Denis Meuthen.
Regular group meetings, meant to foster scientific exchange, are still a challenge for me. I can’t follow discussions with frequent switches between speakers. It helps that nobody judges my performance or expects me to be fully informed afterwards.Supervisors of hearing-impaired researchers can compensate for this problem by designating someone to take meeting minutes and e-mail them shortly afterwards.
Both attending and presenting at conferences, at which attendees are expected to follow conversations across large auditoria, are another challenge. Lip-reading over long distances is impossible. At first, I avoided giving talks and instead chose poster presentations to present my research; in this format, personal close-up communication is the norm. Later, I learnt to inform listeners about my disability and requested that they ask questions in person following my talk.
Live expert transcription during virtual conferences would alleviate these issues, but it is financially challenging because the frequent set-up of meetings and how often they’re rescheduled would require on-call transcription services. My hopes for the future are pinned on further development and widespread integration of automatic captioning technology managed by artificial intelligence.
These methods of support certainly require additional effort, but, taken together, their potential pay-off is huge. Many challenges that disabled researchers have to overcome throughout their lives foster the development of above-average problem-solving capabilities with creative outside-the-box thinking, which we can share with the entire scientific community.- Provide ample opportunities for one-on-one in-person meetings.
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