The summer of 2013 will mark the final time that the Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing is offered. I received the news from the program coordinator, who announced it on the Summer Academy alumni Facebook group page. My reaction to the news was a mixture of appreciation and distress, but also one of realization. Alas, all things must come to an end.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing (the “Summer Academy”) is a nine-week residential program at The University of Washington (UW) at Seattle’s campus. About ten to thirteen deaf or hard of hearing students nationwide are offered spots in the program based on a written application, their transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Some of the benefits of the program include

  1. Taking an undergraduate-level computer science course at UW, as well as an animation class specifically created for the summer program.
  2. Meeting deaf professionals in the workforce via field trips or having them as guest speakers on campus.
  3. Fostering relationships among other talented deaf and hard of hearing students in computing.
  4. Gaining the experience of living independently and away from home for a summer (mostly applies to pre-college students).

All in all, it’s an extremely impressive offering, and it’s free for students since it’s fully funded by a variety of organizations, such as the National Science Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I bet that most students — if not all — end up with many positive experiences. I know I did. (I was a 2011 Summer Academy alumni.)

So why’s it going to end? There are two primary reasons.

  1. The man who started the program and got its funding, Professor Richard Ladner, is retiring and becoming Professor Emeritus. He’s had a 42-year career as a faculty member at UW.
  2. Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was supposed to “claim” the Summer Academy so that it would continue on RIT’s campus, but somehow that arrangement did not work. I don’t know the details about why this happened.

Professor Ladner and the program coordinator did not reapply for funding, and thus the Summer Academy will no longer continue. About 90 students in all will have been served in the Summer Academy’s seven years of existence. As of this writing, the 2013 session is well underway, but the era will come to an end on August 24, 2013.