Projects

Wilmot Future Deaf Scientists Program

People with disabilities, including those who are deaf and hard of hearing, are still underrepresented in STEM graduate education programs, health science professions, and cancer research settings. The University of Rochester James P. Wilmot Cancer Institute in partnership with the Rochester School for the Deaf established the Wilmot Future Deaf Scientists (FDS) program to inspire, grow, and increase deaf student participation in STEM and cancer research fields. The FDS program is an inclusive mentored research education and training program that empowers deaf high school students to envision themselves as future stem researchers capable of decreasing cancer disparities.

Find out about the experience of our first cohort!

Measure of Deaf Childhood Experience

The purpose of the study is to learn more about common childhood experiences of deaf people. There is research suggesting that childhood experiences influence adult outcomes such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs –such as witnessing traumatic events or experiencing neglect and abuse during childhood, among others- have been connected to worse adult health outcomes and disparities. We generally want to explore what common childhood experiences deaf people have, and potentially if certain deaf childhood experiences are related to ACEs.

Signing-on-the-Fly: Technology Preferences to Reduce Communication Gap Between Hearing Parents and Deaf Children

Over 90 percent of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children in the United States are born to hearing parents, who have little to no command of American Sign Language (ASL). This leaves most DHH children at risk of language deprivation in early childhood. This study investigates the design space of Augmented Reality (AR) and wearable technologies in supporting hearing parents to offer sign language environments for young DHH children. We conducted an online survey with 65 participants (hearing/DHH parents and teachers of DHH children aged 6 months to 5 years) to gather preferences and interests of technologies that support hearing parents to deliver ASL on-the-fly and stay attentive to the DHH child’s visual attention during joint toy play. We found that Near-Object Projection is most preferred for real-time ASL delivery, and haptic feedback is most preferred for raising the parent’s awareness of a child’s attention. Results also show a strong interest in using the proposed technologies in interacting with and maintaining joint attention with DHH children daily. We discuss key design recommendations that inform the design of future technologies that support just-in-time and contextual-aware communication in ASL, with minimal obtrusion to face-to-face interaction.

See a video example of technology in use.

COVID-19 Vaccine Equity and Access: Case Study for Health Care Chatbots

Background: Disparities in COVID-19 information and vaccine access have emerged during the pandemic. Individuals from historically excluded communities (eg, Black and Latin American) experience disproportionately negative health outcomes related to COVID-19. Community gaps in COVID-19 education, social, and health care services (including vaccines) should be prioritized as a critical effort to end the pandemic. Misinformation created by the politicization of COVID-19 and related public health measures has magnified the pandemic’s challenges, including access to health care, vaccination and testing efforts, as well as personal protective equipment. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been demonstrated to reduce the gaps of marginalization in education and access among communities. Chatbots are an increasingly present example of ICTs, particularly in health care and in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: This project aimed to (1) follow an inclusive and theoretically driven design process to develop and test a COVID-19 information ICT bilingual (English and Spanish) chatbot tool named “Ana” and (2) characterize and evaluate user experiences of these innovative technologies.

Conclusions: This pilot project demonstrated the feasibility and capacity of an innovative ICT to share COVID-19 information within diverse communities. Creating a chatbot like Ana with bilingual content contributed to an equitable approach to address the lack of accessible COVID-19–related information.