Chemical and biological research with deaf and hard-of-hearing students and professionals: Ensuring a safe and successful laboratory environment

Conducting research with deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students and professionals can be productive and rewarding to the researcher, their research group peers, supervisors, and faculty mentors. However, these efforts can also prove to be intimidating for faculty members/laboratory supervisors, especially to those who are new to working with this population. As is the case with any traditional research initiative, safety is of paramount importance and additional safety and communication considerations for working with D/HH individuals are discussed. Years of experience have indicated that barriers to working with D/HH researchers in the science laboratory are rarely primarily safety-related (as there are strategies to address and remedy these issues), but can rather be ‘attitudinal’ or due to general apprehension when host laboratories lack information/experience in working with this group of individuals. The goals of this article are to discuss laboratory safety strategies for working with D/HH individuals on research projects in the chemical and biological sciences and encourage faculty and supervisors in other organizations to involve and hire these competent scientists who bring valuable/diverse perspectives and experiences to the workplace. Though written from the perspective of academic settings, the best practices outlined here are predominantly transferable to governmental and industrial laboratories.