Summer Academy for Deaf Students

Dr. Richard Ladner, left, signs with computer science academy participants. Credit: Mary Levin, University of Washington

A highlight from summer 2007 was a term-long Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing on the campus of the University of Washington.

The Academy was sponsored by the AccessComputing project (www.washington.edu/accesscomputing) and was co-directed by me and Dr. Richard Ladner, a professor of Computer Science. AccessComputing is funded by the Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) (grant #BPC-0540615) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Rob Roth coordinated the program.

Summer Academy participants attended U.W. computer science courses, participated in an animation project, and developed relationships with each other as well as computer science role models and mentors who are deaf. More information about the Academy can be found on the NSF website at www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110206&org=NSF&from=news.