Deaf professionals experience inequitable access at conferences, but conference hosts can learn to recognize and understand the contributing barriers. Establishing clear accessibility protocols can enhance organizational success and ensure a successful conference.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References
Lempka, C. Employees who are deaf and hard of hearing: Perceptions of workplace accommodations. Ursidae: Undergrad. Res. J. Univ. Northern Colorado. 5, 6 (2019).
Conferences, Conventions, and Workshops (National Association of the Deaf, 2022); https://www.nad.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Conferences-Conventions-and-Workshops.pdf.
McDermid, C., Williams, L. & Ortega, E. D. M. Sign language interpreting within a North American context. In Handbook of Sign Language Translation and Interpreting (eds Stone, C. et al.) 552–566 (Routledge, 2022).
Ensuring deaf access in science. Nat. Rev. Mater. 8, 635 (2023).
Braun, D. C. et al. Welcoming deaf students into STEM: recommendations for university science education. CBE Life Sci. Educ. 17, es10 (2018).
Heblich, S., Lameli, A. & Riener, G. The effect of perceived regional accents on individual economic behavior: A lab experiment on linguistic performance, cognitive ratings and economic decisions. PLOS ONE. 10, e0124732 (2015).
Woolridge, L. R., Leach, A.-M., Blake, C. & Elliott, E. Do accents speak louder than words? Perceptions of linguistic speech characteristics on deception detection. J. Lang. Soc. Psychol. 43, 195–223 (2023).
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Deaf Health Care and Biomedical Science Hub at Rochester Institute of Technology, C. Goudreau Collison, and the STEM Sign Language Summit 2024.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
N.D.C. is the owner of Specialized Interpreting Services and could profit from new business after the dissemination of this article.
Supplementary Information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kasper, A.M., Popov, V.A., Blick-Nitko, S.K. et al. Illuminating the deaf experience at STEM conferences. Nat Rev Chem 8, 645–646 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00639-6
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00639-6
This article is cited by
-
Making scientific workplaces inclusive for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons
Nature Reviews Materials (2025)