During this interactive presentation, Dr. Lucero will share her experiences as a woman of color with hearing loss and a deaf educator; through her storytelling, the audience will reflect on how evolving perspectives on diversity and inclusion have informed current practices in deaf education.

In the US alone, 1 in 4 children with hearing loss comes from a Hispanic home (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2011) and there are many children with hearing loss in Spanish-speaking countries who do not have access to LSL professionals. When provided communication options, Hispanic parents tend to prefer LSL outcomes and the use of hearing technology as there is a strong desire for the child to identify with the culture of their family (Rodriguez & Allen, 2018). However, there are only a small handful of LSL certified professionals who speak Spanish in the world. Over the past several years, the need for a more global LSL reach has been recognized, such as by the creation of AG Bell International. While more resources are starting to become available in Spanish, especially in Spain, there continues to be a great need for LSL training and access to information throughout Latin America. In response, a group of LSL professionals took action to generate change. Escuchar sin Límites (Hear without limits) was founded as an organization consisting of volunteer LSL professionals across the globe who specialize in working with Hispanic families. The mission is to support LSL development through family empowerment, professional training, and access to information in Spanish. Resources such as a website, blog, emails, free webinars, and articles/handouts all in Spanish have been developed; volunteers have also worked to generate interest in LSL certification/training. Thanks to the globalized world in which we live today, international collaboration has been effective, despite geographical distances. This session will consist of sharing information on how we have contributed to the mission of global LSL access for Spanish-speaking families and professionals. Attendees will view how our model was developed and what challenges arose in the process with the goal of similar international collaborative efforts to be established for other languages and countries in the future.

The number of children who are deaf/hard of hearing and linguistically and culturally diverse is rising. Professionals face challenges meeting the needs of these students and their families. This presentation explores services provided for bilingual/Spanish speaking children in Preschool to 5th grade promoting listening and spoken language.