Diversity

Why do I care about diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice?

The foundations of my personal religious, linguistic, and cultural competencies were built since my childhood. I grew up as a North Indian Muslim girl with classmates from all religions in a Christian school setup. I went to college in South India where the culture and language was starkly different from my North Indian background, and I was again one in a trickle of Muslim girls completing graduate education. I moved to the US for my PhD where the culture was once again very different from India. As a Black, Indigeneous, and Person of Color (BIPOC) and an international student and then professional in the US, I have continued to navigate through life in diverse environments and have a personal and professional commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.

How did I advocate for diversity in speech and hearing clinics in India?

I worked at All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, which is a central government institution in South India that offered assessment and therapy services at minimal prices. I advertised, supported and provided consistent support to people in North India to travel and avail these highly affordable and efficient therapy services.

When I moved back to North India and started to work in a private clinic, I took an extra effort to take on individuals on my therapy load that were unaware that their communication disorders had a chance of rehabilitation with speech-language therapy services. I created awareness by community outreach programs and then when individuals approached the clinic, offered services at cheaper prices to individuals from lower socio-economic status.

How I incorporate diversity in my research?

My motivation for research lies in providing equitable opportunities to individuals with communication disorders especially individuals with aphasia. As a researcher in US, I make a strong effort to find female collaborators in India to carry out cross-context work for aphasia rehabilitation and develop augmentative and alternative communication therapy options in a language known to the person with aphasia. I also volunteer for a aphasia therapy group(International Aphasia Movement) that provides free teletherapy to individuals with aphasia all across the United States and Mexico. For my doctoral dissertation, I chose to find people with aphasia who were in the larger Kansas City area and had difficulty availing speech-language-hearing services. While recruiting them, they were made aware of affordable therapy groups. As a professional in India after my Master's program, I specifically chose my first research project to be in South India assessing journeys of communication recovery for people with aphasia from lower socio-economic status.

How I incorporate diversity in my teaching experiences?

I have been an international primary instructor for students from different backgrounds and ethnicities. These boundaries dissolve when we came together as a class leaving only a teacher and students who are working together to learn new things for achieving their respective academic goals. As an international teacher, I control my rate of speech and use the American pronunciation of English words for facilitating better comprehension of class instruction. I offer every student the opportunity to answer during the small periodic class activities to ensure equal engagement from my students. I started a system of pink and yellow post it notes that need to be used in a span of two weeks where each student has to consume their pink note for asking a question and a yellow note for responding to a question in class discussion. In my graduate class, to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, I conducted small group-based activities which involved role-playing the clinician, the caregiver and the person with stuttering for an assessment session, then a counseling and a rehabilitation session. I rotated the group leaders so that all students had a fair shot at taking responsibility for a group project. In addition, I have learned that reiterations to my students that am available to help them with their course material, assignments and other school-related queries has encouraged their class and office hours attendance and engagement.