Making Race Visible in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences: A Critical Discourse Analysis

What is it about?

We studied two important documents that dictate professional standards in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences field. The first document is the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Standards for Certification. The second is the Essential Functions document. We analyzed if these documents considered the lived experiences of students and clinicians of color. We found that both documents ignored issues of race and racism. This creates the systemic exclusion of students and clinicians of color. This contributes to a type of racism called “color-blind racism” or “color-evasive racism.” We argue that there is a need to openly acknowledge and dismantle racism in the field. We end the paper with recommended anti-racist actions.

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