Conferences highlight the importance of Deaf education and access

The importance of Deaf education and access were key themes at two conferences at Gallaudet this month. The 2025 Society for the Neurobiology of Language (SNL) Conference, held Sept. 12-14, welcomed 600 scientists to debate and discuss the intersection of neuroscience, linguistics, and psychology. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Accessible Technology’s State of the Science Conference (SOS), held Sept. 16-17, focused on advancing technology and accessibility for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

Both prominently featured Gallaudet faculty and students, as well as other researchers, looking at issues related to American Sign Language, improving academic performance among Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, and the promise of new innovations.

SOS conference organizers, Dr. Christian Vogler and Dr. Raja Kushalnagar — Co-Directors of the Accessible Human-Centered Computing and Policy Program — contributed their findings to an especially in-depth look at captioning technology. The schedule included multiple presentations related to caption placement, appearance, and the potential use of haptics. “How do we measure caption quality? The answer is it’s complicated,” explained Vogler, who shared results showing that people often think there are mistakes in captions even when they are completely accurate.

Other SOS presentations examined the potential of artificial intelligence in the classroom, optimizing the wireless ecosystem for hearing aids, and the accessibility of voice-activated personal assistants.

The SNL conference was held at Gallaudet to give extra attention to sign language research, says Dr. Lorna Quandt, an Associate Professor in Gallaudet’s PhD Program in Educational Neuroscience (PEN). Because there were so many signing scientists in attendance, it was possible to have nuanced discussions about their work, notes PEN student Rachel Sortino. “They ask different types of questions if they are deaf or signers,” Sortino says.

There is so much more to learn about what is happening in our brains and how we process language, says Dr. Karen Garrido-Nag, Director of the Developmental Neurolinguistics and Cognition Lab, who was excited to present research related to deaf literacy. “Gallaudet not only should be a part of it,” she says. “Gallaudet should lead it.”

Here is a gallery of photos capturing some of the scenes from the SNL conference: