Deafness and Deaf People in Science

Deafness and Deaf People in Science Deaf people have been making contributions to scientific and mathematics fields for centuries. The short list below is just a tiny sampling of the many deaf people, both living and dead, who have made major scientific and mathematical contributions:

• Raymond Atwood - Atwood became deaf at 11. He is known for his work in vitamins and antibiotics.
• Annie Jump Cannon - Cannon became deaf as young adult. She made her mark in astronomy by classifying hundreds of thousands of stars.
• George T. Dougherty - Dougherty was a chemist, and featured in an early educational film on chloroform.
• Thomas Meehan - Meehan was known for his work in horticulture, and had actually worked with Charles Darwin.
• Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky - Tsiolkovsky became deaf around 9 years of age. He developed a rocket equation for how rockets function, and the concept of multistage rockets.

More comprehensive listings of deaf people in science can be found online. One list, which appears to be of primarily living deaf people, is on the Gallaudet Deaf Women and Men in Science website listing of deaf scientists. Another list, which appears to be primarily nonliving deaf people, is on the RIT Science Education for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students Website's (also known as the Clearinghouse on Mathematics, Engineering, Technology and Science for Deaf Students (COMETS)). The RIT list is available in two versions: alphabetical, and by specialty.

Articles on Deaf Scientists

Some articles about deaf scientists can be read free online. For example, in 1995 the magazine World Around You had a "Science & You" series by Harry Lang. Through his own research, Lang identified at least 700 deaf men and women in science. The fascinating, easy to read articles in this series are:

• Can Deaf People Succeed in Science? YOU BET! - Lang's discovery of deaf scientists
• The Deaf Astronomer & the Demon Star - about John Goodricke, a deaf astronomer
• Deaf Inventors Bring Telephone to Deaf People - about the work of three deaf men with TTYs (more detail is in the book A Phone of Their Own: The Deaf Insurrection Against Ma Bell)
• Six Moon Craters Named for Deaf Scientists - title is self-explanatory
• The Nobel and The Deaf - about two deaf people who won the Nobel prize for scientific work

Articles on Teaching Science to Deaf Students

These free downloadable articles on teaching science to deaf students are available:

• From the Journal of Deaf Studies & Deaf Education
  • A Study of Technical Signs in Science: Implications for Lexical Database Development. Winter 2007 Volume 12: 65 - 79.
  • Construction of Meaning in the Authentic Science Writing of Deaf Students. Fall 2001 Volume 6: 258 - 284.
  • Deaf Pupils' Reasoning About Scientific Phenomena: School Science as a Framework for Understanding or as Fragments of Factual Knowledge. Summer 2001 Volume 6: 200 - 211.
  • Enhancing Science Literacy for All Students With Embedded Reading Instruction and Writing-to-Learn Activities. Winter 2000; Volume 5: 105 - 122.
• From the Eric database:
  • Signing Science! Andy And Tonya Are Just Like Me! They Wear Hearing Aids And Know My Language!? (EJ697379)

More articles can be found on the COMETS bibliography.

Resources for Teaching Deaf Students Science

The website Signing Science uses the SigningAvatar software from Vcom3D (www.vcom3d.com) to demonstrate signs for science vocabulary. Even if you do not have the software, you can still read the definitions developed by TERC (www.terc.edu).

In addition, the aforementioned COMETS website (www.rit.edu/~comets) is a rich resource, with information for teachers on how to teach science, including curriculum development; an online science and math technical sign lexicon that includes video clips; and pictionaries.

Books on Deaf People in Science

Lang also wrote a book on deaf people in science, Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science. (compare prices) Another book, also co-authored by Lang with his wife, is Deaf Persons in the Arts and Science: A Biographical Dictionary (compare prices).

Science Programs for Deaf Students

For deaf high school students interested in science, Gallaudet University offers the summer Science Star program. At the college level, both Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) offer science-related degrees. Gallaudet has degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Math, and NTID offers a Laboratory Science Technology program.

Scholarships for Deaf Students Studying Science

NTID has a NTID Science and Engineering Careers Endowed Scholarship Fund "to provide scholarship assistance to deaf students enrolled in science and engineering." Gallaudet University has the Gordon H. and Dorothy M. Brown Fund for Environmental Science, which "supports students who participate in cooperative internship programs that are primarily concerned with matters which will improve the quality of our global ecology and environment."