The AIBIDS program uses only certified ASL interpreters that work as a consistent team to provide support for mentoring, lab, classroom, and special events over the summer.  The AIBIDS program is unique among STEM research experiences for undergraduates in that the program provides one ASL interpreting student the opportunity to receive a mentored experience on the AIBIDS interpreting team for the summer. The student would not be providing additional interpreting but rather intern under a mentor and with the interpreting team to document the “how”: 

• How do Deaf or Hard of Hearing AIBIDS students negotiate signs with interpreters? 

• How do interpreters navigate cultural and power dynamics e.g. balancing the issue that interpreters are ethically not supposed to establish vocabulary, with the challenge that novice students may not have the subject expertise to navigate this language work solo thus posing a “disability tax” if this burden lands on them?

The benefits to the student will include: 

1) deep exposure to ASL interpreting throughout a 10 week STEM program, 

2) acquisition of a broader range of conceptually accurate signs useful in STEM discussions, and 

3) connections to a network of ASL interpreting experts and leaders in STEM lexicon development.