THE MIND HEARS PROVIDES A MUTUAL-MENTORING FORUM FOR DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING ACADEMICS

While ~17% of the adult population has significant hearing loss, we remain under-represented within academia outside of the field of Deaf Studies. Within STEM fields ~2% of PhD go to deaf or hard of hearing (deaf/HoH) scientists each year. Several factors contribute to this under-representation including isolation of disabled academics and lack of mutual mentoring networks that have been shown to foster sense of belonging for people within minoritized groups. Deaf/HOH at predominantly hearing institutions often remain isolated without guidance on how to manage the myriad of communication challenges facing academics, such as teaching, leading group meetings, participating in discussions at professional meetings, and serving on grant proposal panels. The success of researchers at all levels (graduate students, post docs and faculty/professional) depends on mastering these different communication challenges. To fill the mentoring gap, we have started a blog by and for academics at all career stages with some degree of hearing loss called, “The Mind Hears”. This title derives from the Victor Hugo quote “What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears? The only deafness, the true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.” The goals of the blog are:

• To provide a forum for crowd-sourcing ways to minimize our challenges and share strategies for thriving in academia with hearing loss.
• To foster a network of deaf and hard of hearing academics who promote hearing inclusive strategies at universities.

Through social media (@themindhears) and networking, the blog (www.themindhears.org) has been increasing its reach to deaf and hard-of-hearing academics within a wide range of disciplines. The blog has over 30 posts and over 10k views world wide. We have also found support from hearing allies who want to make their communities more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing academics. Like all disabilities, hearing loss is variable and can affect us in many and different ways – but through this shared blog we hope to reduce isolation in our community and build a community toolbox of resources and ideas, providing something of value to all of those who visit and contribute to our discussions. The strategies that we’ve used to grow this mutual mentoring network can be implemented by others to better support their communities.