Fading in from black, white text appears on screen “Gallaudet University, REU 2022” and the camera pans around a large well-lit room with people, poster boards and large screen monitors positioned around the room.
White text appears on screen as camera moves up towards Christian and Raja, dressed in business casual and wearing masks, who are standing in the middle of the room looking at the camera. Text says “Raja Kushalnagar and Christian Vogler, REU directors”. They sign to the camera in ASL.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “Musical Thinking Accessibility: Smithsonian American Art Museum” by Sehuam Bakri, John Taylor, Dr. Lorna Quandt, Dr. Ben Bahan, Dr. Melissa Malzkuhn (all Gallaudet U).
Sehuam (on a monitor) and John (masked) are dressed in business casual and looking at the camera smiling and signing in ASL.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “Caption Metrics Evaluation with Weighed Word Error Rates” by Mariana Arroyo Chávez, Skyler Officer, Molly Feanny, Dr. Raja Kushalnagar, Dr. Christian Vogler (all Gallaudet U).
VIdeo pans out to show Mariana, masked and wearing a black Gallaudet polo shirt, and Skyler, on monitor wearing a white NASA tee shirt, looking at the camera and smiling. Mariana signs in ASL. Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “Signing Privacy: Can Signers Be Anonymized While Being Understandable” by Andrew Luna (Western Washington U), James Waller, Ph.D. and Raja Kushalnagar, Ph.D. (both Gallaudet U).
Video pans out to show Andrew, dressed in business casual and masked, signing in ASL.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “ASL-Consent: ASL Consent in the Digital Informed Consent Process” by Ben Kosa (U of Washington) Dr. Raja Kushalnagar, Dr. Christian Vogler (both Gallaudet U).
Video pans out to Ben, on a monitor in a Gallaudet black polo shirt, looking at the camera and signing in ASL.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “Closed Interpreting Accessibility (CIA)” by Bridget Lam, Zehui Liu, Dr. Patrick Bouldreault, Dr. Raja Kushalnagar, Dr. Christian Vogler (all Gallaudet U).
Video pans out to Bridget and Zehui both masked and dressed in business casual. They are looking at the camera and smiling – Bridget signs first in ASL then Zehui.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “Automatic Captioning in Live Virtual Reality Presentations” by Dawson Franz (Columbia U), Pranav Pidathala (U of Maryland), Dr. Raja Kushalnagar and Dr. Christian Vogler (both Gallaudet U).
Video pans out to Pranav, masked and in business casual, looking at the camera signing in ASL.
Video pans over to Dawson, masked and in business casual, standing next to a woman who interprets Dawson’s spoken English to ASL.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “MoLo Open Access” by Ming Li and Julie A. Hochgesang (both Gallaudet U).
Video pans out to Ming, masked and in business casual, looking at the camera and signing in ASL.
Sped up footage of approach to a poster on a board. The close up of the poster shows its title and contributors “Development of an Assistive Technology Evaluation Metric” by Juan A. Meléndez Camacho (U of Puerto Rico – Arecibo), David Manis, Michael Janger (both Gallaudet U).
Video pans out to Juan, masked and in a black Gallaudet polo shirt, standing next to a man who interprets his spoken English content to ASL.
Video cuts to Julie and James standing in the middle of the room dressed in business casual and looking at the camera. They are signing in ASL- first Julie then James.
Sped up footage shows a monitor with three Zoom windows revealing different aspects of the room with the poster presentations then pans across the room showing people, poster boards and monitors around the room.
Sped up footage of a person asking Sehuam about their poster.
Sped up footage of President Bobbi Cordano in business attire enters the room and is greeted by Poorna Kushalnagar and Raja Kushalnagar (both dressed in business casual and masked).
Sped up footage of President Cordano wearing a clear mask is watching Mariana explain her poster.
Sped up footage of Bobbi standing before Andrew’s poster signing with Poorna and Raja.
Raja and then Christian stand next to monitors and in front of red chairs and a high table signing to the room in ASL.
Camera pans to show people standing around the room and then the poster boards, monitors and people standing around mingling.
Video fades to black.
Research Experience for Undergraduates: Accessible Technology Summer Research at Gallaudet University - Summer 2026
Background
Gallaudet University is the only university in the world where students live and learn using American Sign Language (ASL) and English. It offers a 10-week summer research program for undergraduate students focusing on accessible information and communications technologies. Participants will be immersed in a collaborative community of practice and be mentored by accessible technology faculty researchers on projects focused on accessible technology for the deaf and hard of hearing communities. Lab activities will be supplemented with weekly research training seminars, invited talks, and professional development workshops.
Participating in an undergraduate research project is a great way to learn a lot about a specific area and to try your hand at a cutting-edge research topic. If you are thinking about graduate school, this is also an excellent opportunity to find out what research is about and to get experience before applying.
In this program, students will come together to learn about computing research methodologies, participate in active research, and receive professional development training. As a participant in the REU site, you will receive a stipend, room and board, and travel reimbursement.
At a Glance
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The application for Summer 2026 opens November 2025
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Program dates: May 18 – July 24, 2026
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Application deadline: March 16th, 2026 11:59 ET
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10-week research experience in accessible technology
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Research guided by faculty mentors and graduate students
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Weekly presentations by researchers
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Lab tours, seminars, invited talks and graduate school advising
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$7,000 stipend, housing, meals and travel provided
You will conduct mentored research projects related to their advisor’s expertise. You will gain experience in science communication by presenting the results of your project in a manuscript-style research paper and presentation at a university-wide research symposium. Participants attend research seminars and workshops on career skills in science. Students may also have the opportunity to present their research findings at professional conferences.
REU Participants: 2014 – 2025
Information
Meet the Team
Christian Vogler
Co-PI
Julie Hochgesang
Mentor
Patrick Boudreault
Mentor
Bernard Thompson
Graduate Mentor
Contact
- Research Experience for Undergraduates: Accessible Information and Communications Technologies
- SLCC | 1125
- click to show email
- (202) 651-5085
- (202) 250-2071
