Project Access: A Program to Improve Service Delivery for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations with Speech,Language and Hearing Disorders

Abstract

The increasing number of persons from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the population and the need to modify diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for these groups served as the basis for seeking funds to train speech-language pathologists with skills that meet the speech and language needs of these groups. Project Access was designed to recruit, retain, and train students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In addition to the approved undergraduate and graduate speech- language pathology curricula that address diagnostic and treatment strategies for all groups, seminars that explore speech and language disorders of diverse populations were added as requirements. Financial and other support activities are provided as part of this project for all trainees. Financial support is provided in the form of tuition remission, monthly stipends, and book allowances. Other support activities are provided through mentoring and specialized academic support. This paper will describe the recruitment, retention, and training techniques being used to increase the number of speech-language pathologists with special training to meet the speech, language, and hearing needs of persons from diverse groups.

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