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UW Professor Earns Presidential Award For Excellence In Science, Mathematics, And Engineering Mentoring

Walk into any undergraduate computer science classroom in America, and you're likely to see a pretty homogenous group of students. In fact, according to recent surveys, fewer than one in five of those students will be female. The numbers increase only slightly for graduate students.

Now, picture the same classroom again and look for students with severe disabilities. If you see more than one, your picture is unrealistic. In fact, only about one in one hundred students with disabilities earns a doctorate. When you consider than about one in ten people in the U.S. has a severe disability, the statistics are sadly low.

But one computer science and engineering professor at the University of Washington is getting national recognition for his work with women and students with disabilities. Throughout his career, Richard Ladner has served as a mentor for graduate, undergraduate, and high school students and junior faculty. In May, he was one of nine individuals and five groups nationwide to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"Mentoring is probably one of the most rewarding parts of the job, because you have one-on-one interaction or small group interaction,” says Ladner.

The award comes with a $10,000 grant to enable recipients to continue their work, and Ladner says the recognition is helping those he mentors as well. "Suddenly, people are recognizing you and giving you some credibility and listening to you, and you have a little bit more power than you had before. You have some power to do good. So if you just sit there and win your award and rest on your laurels, that's a waste. You should be using that to generate more good and make whatever you're doing better.”

So while people are taking notice of his work with women and students with disabilities, the monetary component of the award will help fund a mentoring workshop next summer for blind and visually impaired people. "At this workshop, I'm planning to bring together some of the best and the brightest high school, college, graduate students and professionals from all over the country, and bring them to Seattle,” Ladner says. One of his ideas is to have a day when students could interact with researchers and vendors who are working on accessible technology. Ladner points out that it's not often that such an exceptional group of visually impaired people is brought together, and he would like them to have input on the next generation of technology. In conjunction with the mentoring workshop, the National Federation of the Blind will give a workshop for potential employers of blind engineers and scientists.

Ladner is not intimidated by challenges facing students with severe disabilities. As the hearing child of two deaf parents, he is fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and taught a computer science course at Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the deaf. There aren't signs for certain words related to new technology, but Ladner spelled out the words and used acronyms whenever possible. Some of his undergraduate students at the UW helped to build new tactile campus maps for blind people to include bus stop locations and pedestrian bridges. Now, the maps can be changed with a computer and new ones printed in minutes. He says the experience was a rare opportunity for seeing students to work directly with blind students on a project. He points out, "How many undergraduates get to work that intimately with blind students on anything?” He would also like to see departments offer service components for credits toward a degree in the future.

Ladner's ideas and efforts were noticed by two of his colleagues, Eve Riskin, an electrical engineering professor and Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair of Computer Science & Engineering, who sent a proposal to the National Science Foundation recommending Ladner for the award. "Richard was just an obvious candidate for the award because of his sincere dedication to people with disabilities and to women faculty and students,” says Riskin. "He has been a wonderful and supportive collaborator to me over the past 15 years.”

In May, Ladner flew to Washington, D.C. to accept the prestigious award. There were two days of events for the award recipients, including a White House tour and a meeting with the president. Ladner says being with the 13 other award winners was one of the most impressive experiences of the trip.

On the second day, the recipients were asked to give a presentation about some of their work. "As I was sitting there, I was looking at everybody else, and I was really awed by all the things people had done and programs they'd developed, so I said, ‘How can I be different?'” Ladner recalls. "And I realized I was the only person there that was getting an award that had to do with disability.” So instead of diving right into his presentation, he taught everyone a few signs first. It's ironic, but he didn't know the sign for mentoring; it's used only rarely in ASL. But he did teach them other signs for words more commonly used, like help, support, advise, and inform.

While the award has brought him recognition for things he has already accomplished, Ladner says there is still a lot more to be done. He says he would like educators to meet the challenge of working with students with disabilities. "If you come 10 percent, they have to come 90 percent.” He adds that students are the ones who have to hire note-takers and carry around extra technology to obtain their education. And, he points out, doing things like slowing down a lecture so an ASL interpreter can keep up can have other positive impacts. "Your change in behavior might be a benefit for everybody.”

Ladner would like to see more people with disabilities obtain an education, and later, put that education to good use. "Sixty percent of blind people are unemployed, and many more are underemployed" he notes. "The education system has failed blind students. And of those blind people who are successful, even those who have a Ph.D., they have a very difficult time getting a job.” He says he would also like to see ASL courses offered at the UW. ASL is currently taught at 55 high schools and 13 community colleges in the state of Washington, at Central and Eastern Washington Universities, and at Washington State University.

Stephanie Cartier is pursuing a master's degree in technical communication at the University of Washington.

Images:

Top: Richard Ladner with his wife and daughter in Washington, D.C. while attending the award ceremony. Photo: Richard Ladner

Middle: Richard Ladner (center) at a workshop for students with disabilities on the University of Washington campus. Photo: Stephanie Cartier

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