What is it about?
In speech-language-hearing sciences, one major challenge to recruiting and supporting students and professionals who are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) lies in the fundamental heterogeneity of racial and ethnic identities, language and cultural heritages, and countries of origins. To that end, the API Speech-Language-Hearing Caucus provides a wide array of initiatives and programs to recruit and retain AAPI audiologists and speech-language pathologists, including Anti-racism Learning Community, API Speaker Series, Bilingual Assessment and Treatment Resources, Career Panel, API Caucus Research and Clinical Symposium, Graduate School Panel, API Scholarship, and API Mentorship Program.
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Why is it important?
The 2022 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Member & Affiliate Profile shows that 8.9% of ASHA constituents self-identified as racial minorities. Approximately 3%, or 7,190 out of 217,886 members that ASHA represents, identified as AAPIs. The percentage signals a significant underrepresentation of AAPI professionals in speech-language-hearing sciences, compared to 6% of AAPI and almost 40% of BIPOC in the U.S. general population.
Perspectives
While offering a mentorship program and webinar series may be a good start, it takes a village, especially governing organizations like ASHA, the Council on Academic Accreditation, and the Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, to make structural changes and build pathways to meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusion in our profession.
Chunyang Huang
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, July 2024, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2024_persp-24-00071.
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