Recruiting And Retaining Underrepresented Students In Communication Sciences And Disorders: A Community Based Participatory Research Approach (Poster)

The field of communication sciences and disorders has a diversity problem that has not changed since the profession began in the 1920s. Currently, only 8.3% of American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA, 2019) members identify as racial minorities, and only 5.8% identify as Hispanic or Latin. The time has come to make changes in the diversity in our field. This study seeks perspectives from underrepresented practicing speech- language pathologists and audiologists about their own journey to the field and how best to help future practitioners during their pre-clinical academic training. (ASHA) first made a commitment to diversity and inclusion in 1969, but little has been accomplished since that time. Available studies have focused on increasing diversity in the field of speech-language pathology by surveying undergraduate students (Fuse, 2018) or examining university-wide efforts (Woods, et al., 2015). We have selected a novel approach by inviting practicing clinicians as research team members to better inform the authenticity of the projected outcomes to increase diversity and inclusion in our field.<p></p>