The Presidential Search Committee is responsible for the search for 91亚色鈥檚 ninth president and vice-chancellor.

As part of the process of developing the mandate and position profile for the University鈥檚 next president and vice-chancellor, the committee members would like to hear from as many members of the University community as possible.

We invite you to offer your perspectives. We have scheduled our third consultation for: Thursday, Sept. 17 on the Keele Campus at 10 a.m. to noon in the Dr. Robert Everett Senate Chamber, N940 Ross Building.

The session will be in-person with virtual available to those who are unable to join in-person.

Registration for the session:

The Search Committee has prepared questions to consider in advance of the sessions (or if you would like to prepare a written response). The questions can be found here.

If you prefer to write your response, please take a moment to comment in confidence to: yorkpvc@boyden.com or by completing the survey available at . Your comments will not be attributed to you, but will be shared with the committee.

Antonio Di Domenico
Chair Presidential Search Committee鈥�

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For a decade, Gulseren, who teaches human resource management in 91亚色's School of Administrative Studies, has researched chronic pain in the workplace. During that time, one issue kept surfacing.

鈥淪ubstance dependence is far more common among employees than most people realize,鈥� says Gulseren. 鈥淥pioids kept coming up as an important and often overlooked part of that picture.鈥�

The impacts of opioid dependence can be significant for both workers and organizations, she says. For personnel, it can contribute to anxiety, reduced concentration and chronic health challenges. For employers, it can mean increased absenteeism and presenteeism, reduced productivity, higher turnover and rising disability and health care costs.

Despite the effect dependence can have on workers and companies, Gulseren and frequent collaborator Zhanna Lyubykh, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University, have found many employers remain unprepared to respond.

鈥淢any organizations still lack effective and practical strategies for addressing opioid-related challenges at work,鈥� says Gulseren. 鈥淭hey often don鈥檛 know how to approach it.鈥�

That gap led to a paper, , which aims to provide organizations with a clearer understanding of what contributes to opioid use in the workplace and what employers can do to address it.

In order to do so, the researchers reviewed a broad body of literature on opioid use disorder, workplace injuries, job stress, culture, drug-testing policies and recovery programs. They also examined evidence on accommodations and other measures designed to help employees manage substance-use challenges and return to work successfully.

Across the literature they reviewed, several themes emerged. According to Gulseren, one of the most notable findings was that employment setting conditions themselves can contribute to opioid dependence.

A common assumption is that opioid use disorder is primarily a personal issue rooted in an individual's own circumstances.

鈥淥ur research points to something different: conditions like poor ergonomics, high stress, pressure to return to work too soon after an injury or heavy physical demands with little control over one's work can push employees toward dependence,鈥� says Gulseren.

Across the literature, another theme emerged: workplace responses can be just as important as workplace conditions. When organizations addressed opioid use through measures such as drug testing or strict disciplinary policies, the evidence suggested those approaches often fell short.

Punitive measures such as drug testing and strict disciplinary approaches were often found to have limited success. Some studies reviewed by Gulseren even identified links between punitive policies and higher rates of opioid use. She and Lyubykh found such approaches can increase employee distress, create perceptions of unfairness, discourage people from seeking help and encourage workers to conceal substance-use problems.

Instead, the researchers found strategies focused on reducing stigma, providing accommodations and helping staff through treatment and recovery were often associated with better outcomes.

Across the studies they reviewed, these approaches were linked to lower rates of substance use, safer workplaces, greater willingness among employees to seek help, improved retention and more successful recovery and return-to-work outcomes.

For Gulseren, the review was about more than identifying insights from existing research. It was also an opportunity to explore practical ways organizations could better assist personnel.

鈥淚t was important to us that the work translate into applicable, practical recommendations that people in HR and management roles could actually put into practice,鈥� says Gulseren.

The published paper offers recommendations split into two categories: prevention and response.

On the prevention side, it encourages employers to focus on reducing workplace injuries, improving ergonomics, lowering job-related stress, creating psychologically safer spaces and ensuring employees have adequate opportunities for rest and recovery.

For those already struggling with opioid dependence, they recommend non-judgmental conversations, reducing stigma, recognizing signs of distress, providing appropriate accommodations and facilitating treatment and recovery. The researchers also emphasize the importance of structured return-to-work plans and ongoing support after treatment.

The recommendations, Gulseren says, are intended to give organizations the tools and understanding they need to better respond to staff needs while improving outcomes for companies as a whole.

鈥淲e hope it gives managers concrete, evidence-based tools both preventive (how to minimize the likelihood of opioid-related harm in the first place) and reactive (how to support employees through opioid use disorder and recovery when it does occur) ways,鈥� says Gulseren.

For her, that work is especially important because conversations about opioid use in the workplace are often oversimplified.

鈥淥pioids can be a necessary part of chronic pain management for many employees, so this isn't a simple 鈥榦pioids are bad鈥� story,鈥� says Gulseren. 鈥淥rganizations need better ways to manage and respond to this reality. We hope our work encourages organizations to move away from punitive responses and toward more supportive approaches.鈥�

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Born in Germany in 1926, Danziger emigrated with his family to South Africa as a child and completed degrees in chemistry and psychology at the University of Cape Town before pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Oxford, where he was among the institution's first PhD graduates in psychology.

After teaching in Australia and Indonesia, Danziger returned to South Africa and eventually became chair of psychology at the University of Cape Town. During the apartheid era, he became acquainted with Nelson Mandela and other leaders in the anti-apartheid movement and served as an expert witness in trials involving Black activists. His advocacy brought threats against him and his family, as well as the possibility of prosecution by the government.

In 1965, Danziger accepted an invitation to join 91亚色 as the second chair of its Department of Psychology.

Arriving as the University was opening the Keele Campus, he helped shepherd a period of rapid growth for the department. During his two-year tenure as chair, faculty numbers more than doubled. During that period, he also helped recruit many of the scholars who would shape the department's future growth and research strengths. He remained at 91亚色 until his retirement in 1994, when he became professor emeritus.

鈥淜urt was a giant in our department and in the field," says Alistair Mapp, current chair of the Department of Psychology.

While helping shape the department's growth, Danziger also emerged as one of the world's leading scholars of the history of psychology. Although he initially worked in social psychology, his interests increasingly turned toward the history of the discipline and its research methods, as well as the ways the discipline鈥檚 ideas evolved over time.

By the 1980s, that interest culminated in his influential 1990 book, Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Psychological Research. It was one of several landmark works that followed, including Naming the Mind: How Psychology Found Its Language and Marking the Mind: A History of Memory, helping establish his international reputation and reshaping how scholars understood psychology's past.

Collectively, his research challenged long-accepted assumptions about some of the discipline's founding figures and prompted new ways of thinking about how psychological knowledge is created. The work also helped lay the foundation for one of his most lasting contributions to 91亚色. Danziger helped establish the University's graduate specialization in History and Theory of Psychology, developing its curriculum and serving as its founding director when it launched in 1980. Over the following years, he supervised many of the students who entered the program, helping train a generation of scholars. The program continues today as Historical, Theoretical and Critical Research in Psychology.

Over the course of his career, Danziger received numerous honours. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1989 and received the Canadian Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in 1994 for his role in establishing 91亚色's graduate specialization in the history and theory of psychology. In 2005, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. He also received lifetime achievement awards from both the Society for the History of Psychology and the Canadian Psychological Association's History and Philosophy of Psychology Section.

For those who knew him well, including Professor Emeritus Ray Fancher, Danziger's accomplishments resonate not only in the field of psychology, but throughout 91亚色.

"He was surely one of 91亚色's 'greatest' figures," says Fancher.

Mapp echoes that sentiment. "His legacy will live on through his students and his writings. He will be sorely missed," he says.

With files from Ray Fancher

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Yet, according to a by 91亚色 Associate Professor Kevin Lande, one of the mind's most familiar experiences remains a scientific mystery.

In a paper published in Psychological Review, Lande and co-author E.J. Green of Johns Hopkins University ask: "What role does mental imagery play in the mind?" They challenge a growing view that imagery is critical to much of perception and cognition.

Some contemporary theories propose that mental imagery is an ingredient of everything from memory and decision-making to perception. One argument, notes Lande, suggests what people perceive is often shaped by mental imagery.

For example, when part of an object is obscured from view, the brain automatically fills in the missing details 鈥� a process that a growing number of philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists suggest is a form of mental imagery rather than direct perception.

"If most of our visual experiences involve some amount of 'filling in,' then much of what we seem to see is, in fact, imaged," says Lande.

However, as the concept of mental imagery is expanded to include a wider range of neural processes, Lande says it becomes more challenging to define a theory on mental imagery. The authors argue there is very little that connects ordinary experiences of mental imagery to the processes involved in filling in missing details.

鈥淢any want to say that visual imagery, for example, is just perceptual processing that does not depend directly on the light that hits the eye,鈥� Lande says. 鈥淚f that鈥檚 right, then it turns out that all sorts of things seem to require imagery. But when you look at the scientific research on these different processes, you find that they all function very differently.鈥�

To count 鈥渇illing in" as imagery, Lande says, one must adopt a really thin conception of imagery 鈥� which doesn鈥檛 help with making new predictions and explanations.

The study also draws on recent research on people with aphantasia 鈥� a condition in which people report little or no conscious mental imagery 鈥� which shows they often perform as well as people who experience vivid mental imagery. This evidence, notes Lande, challenges assumptions about the role imagery plays in everyday thinking and cognition.

For example, a person can navigate Toronto by vividly imagining a map in their head. But, they can also move across the city by following habits, remembering directions or using a feeling of familiarity without ever forming a clear mental picture. If this task can be achieved with roughly equal success and speed with or without mental imagery, researchers may struggle to understand the role it plays in cognition.

Lande and Green suggest that imagery is not a critical component of perception, but argue there is a deeper issue: science lacks a clear account of what exactly imagery is.

"As researchers attribute an ever-growing range of mental activities to imagery, the concept risks becoming too broad to explain anything clearly,鈥� says Lande, a philosopher at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. 鈥淚f we define mental imagery so as to encompass a diverse range of experiences and cognitive processes, researchers may find it increasingly difficult to test theories about its role in the mind.

"However, if we try to tie our theory of imagery more close to our familiar conscious experiences, the puzzle of aphantasia suggest that it plays very little role in perception and cognition."

The study highlights the value of interdisciplinary approaches to studying the mind. Drawing on philosophy, psychology and cognitive science, the authors contend that questioning basic assumptions can lead to new insights into how the mind works.

Lande, who is a Connected Minds 91亚色 Research Chair in Philosophy of Representation, says the work is closely aligned with 91亚色鈥檚 Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) program, and the $318-million Connected Minds research initiative led by 91亚色 and Queen鈥檚 universities which focuses on bridging intelligence, technology and society. He is also affiliated with 91亚色's Centre for Vision Research and the Centre for Integrative and Applied Neuroscience.

The paper concludes that researchers may need to rethink the concept of mental imagery to get a "better picture" of how perception, memory and cognition interact.

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The , published in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, shows that municipalities may not need new infrastructure to become 鈥渟marter鈥� and explores how to use the city itself as the sensor.

Urban planners depend on data to support decisions ranging from parking management and road maintenance to traffic operations and environmental monitoring, explains Elham Heydari-Gharaei, the study鈥檚 first author and 91亚色 PhD alum. Collecting that information across an entire city, however, can require expensive networks of fixed sensors.

鈥淚t struck me that while municipalities spend millions installing and maintaining fixed sensors, thousands of vehicles are already travelling through urban streets every day,鈥� says Heydari-Gharaei, who is now an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. 鈥淭hat made me wonder: What if the city itself could become the sensor?鈥�

By strategically coordinating vehicles equipped as mobile sensors, bicycles, maintenance vehicles, municipal fleets and shared mobility services could gather and share information as they move through urban areas.

鈥淭he key challenge is coordinating those vehicles efficiently, so the data remains reliable while keeping costs manageable,鈥� says Heydari-Gharaei. 鈥淏y solving that coordination problem, cities can collect reliable, up-to-date information while making better use of existing resources.鈥�

In response, the research team developed algorithms to help planners evaluate operational scenarios. They assessed factors such as sensing frequency, fleet size and service routes, while scaling solutions for large urban networks.

One finding that stood out emerged from a Toronto case study. Researchers found that only about one-quarter of Toronto鈥檚 Bike Share fleet could monitor the entire permit parking network if equipped with sensors and strategically routed. The result highlights how optimization can significantly reduce the resources needed for city-wide monitoring.

Mehdi Nourinejad, associate professor at the and Heydari-Gharaei's doctoral supervisor, says the implications for mobile sensing systems could enhance data retrieval for infrastructure inspection, environmental monitoring, traffic management and other smart-city applications.

鈥淐ities already have thousands of vehicles moving through their streets every day and the key is to develop optimization methods that determine how those vehicles should be routed and deployed to collect reliable data,鈥� says Nourinejad. 鈥淚f cities can collect reliable information using resources they already operate, they may be able to improve services without major new expenditures.鈥�

The findings could also help address financial barriers experienced by municipalities seeking to expand data collection without making large investments in smart-city infrastructure.

Reliable urban data, says Heydari-Gharaei, supports everyday decisions, from helping drivers find parking to monitoring road conditions, air quality and public infrastructure. Better data, says Heydari-Gharaei, can support better planning, reduced congestion, improved sustainability and more responsive public services.

鈥淎s sensing technologies continue to improve, there is enormous potential to rethink how cities gather information without continuously investing in new infrastructure,鈥� says Heydari-Gharaei.

During the project, 91亚色 researchers collaborated with Professor Matthew Roorda from the University of Toronto, who contributed expertise in freight transportation and urban mobility.

With files from Alex Huls

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Razieh (Neda) Salahandish, an assistant professor at the , is developing a wearable biosensor that uses sweat to track physiological changes in real time. The tool aims to redefine preventative health care, supporting earlier detection of health conditions.

To do this, the device uses technology that combines microfluidic systems with AI to analyze biomarkers found in sweat 鈥� a body fluid Salahandish says contains valuable information about human health. A small patch collects sweat from the skin, analyzes it for disease biomarkers, and sends results to health care practitioners anytime a patient scans the device with a specific app. 

"We believe sweat has the potential to become an important source of health data," says Salahandish. "Because it contains valuable biological information, our goal is to use that data to provide health insights in a way that is continuous, accessible and non-invasive." 

Unlike traditional diagnostic methods that often require blood samples or laboratory testing, wearable sweat-sensing technology offers a non-invasive approach to monitoring physiological changes as they occur. 

To advance the technology, Salahandish worked with 91亚色's YSpace and the IP Innovation Clinic to launch WearDOXX, a health technology company focused on developing biotechnology and AI-enabled health care devices. Through WearDOXX, Salahandish and her collaborators are working to translate years of research into commercially viable health technologies.聽

The project has attracted support from investors, industry partners and funding agencies as researchers work to bring the technology from the lab to everyday use. In 2025, the initiative received a $300,000 Ontario Centre of Innovation Collaborate 2 Commercialize grant and a $345,000 Mitacs Business Strategy Internship grant. 

The recent $5-million infusion from investors allows the work to move toward clinical validation and support continued technology development, testing and commercialization efforts. 

"The support we've received reflects growing interest in technologies that make health monitoring more accessible and proactive," says Salahandish. "Our focus now is to continue to build the evidence and infrastructure needed to for broader adoption." 

Over the next two years, Salahandish and her team will refine and test the technology, with plans to bring it to market soon after. While no launch date has been set, she is enthusiastic about its potential impact. 

鈥淭his is about giving people control over their health in ways we haven鈥檛 seen before,鈥� she says. 

Salahandish is also earning recognition for her work. She was recently named one of five finalists for the Ontario Centre of Innovation's 2026 Baylis Ontario Life Sciences Innovator Award, with the recipient to be announced in September. She is also the recipient the 2026 Young Woman Researcher in Biomedical Devices award from the Venus International Women Awards. 

With files from Deirdre Kelly

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Jean-Pierre, a faculty member in 91亚色's Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, received the award for her article "Overlooked and underserved: How inclusive education oversights exclude Black students."

Published in the , the study investigates how the intersection of race and disability shapes educational experiences and access to support in Canadian schools.

The award recognizes the impact of research emerging from 91亚色 that advances understanding of equity, inclusion and educational access. By identifying barriers that can remain hidden within existing systems, the study offers evidence to inform policy and practice aimed at creating more equitable learning environments.

鈥淭his award highlights the importance of studying how race and disability intersect in educational settings,鈥� says Jean-Pierre. 鈥淏y drawing on the perspectives of students, caregivers and community members, we were able to identify ways that disability-related procedures can inadvertently limit access to learning opportunities for some Black students."

CACS award committee members noted in the announcement that Jean-Pierre's work "advances research in the field and will continue to be a meaningful reference point for curriculum scholars for years to come."

The study finds that policies intended to promote inclusion and equity do not always lead to equitable experiences for Black students, and participants described three recurring issues: incorrect use of Individual Program Plans (IPPs), limited support for mental health needs and inconsistent identification of learning disabilities and related accommodations.

Jean-Pierre suggests that school processes can unintentionally create barriers when racism and ableism are addressed separately, such as failing to follow-up with Black students' caregivers after an assessment to facilitate a student-family-school discussion to plan and implement accommodations.

This, she says, points to the need for closer alignment across inclusivity and equity resources.

The study calls for closer partnerships among schools and Black families, students and caregivers, along with more consistent identification of learning disabilities and implementation of accommodations. It also points to the need for teacher education and professional development that address how racism and ableism can shape educational experiences.

The award follows recognition from the Canadian Sociological Association, which awarded Jean-Pierre the 2025 Outstanding Service Award for her 鈥渆fforts to engage Black and/or Francophone faculty and students鈥� leading to the growth of the CSA.

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91亚色鈥檚 has launched a new to prepare learners for careers in the field.

Designed for professionals working in human resources, health care, insurance, rehabilitation, occupational health and safety or related fields, the three-month, part-time program is delivered through a blend of synchronous and asynchronous online learning. It includes three courses focused on the theory, applied knowledge and workplace skills needed to support employees through disability-related transitions.

The first cohort begins in Winter 2027.

"With an aging workforce and rising disability claims, particularly related to mental health, there is a high demand across the province of Ontario and Canada for disability management professionals to help employers reduce workplace absences and facilitate safe returns to work," says Francis Fung, program advisory committee member.

Disability management efforts, says Fung, must address issues beyond legal compliance and duty to accommodate and give more consideration to inclusive workplace practices.

鈥淚 am excited that the 91亚色鈥檚 School of Continuing Studies is launching a program that will prepare learners in recognizing disability as a human diversity and focus on a person-centred approach in disability management," he says.

The certificate covers functional interviewing, job-demand analysis, workplace accommodation, case co-ordination, professional documentation and communication for sensitive workplace conversations. Learners will also develop graduated return-to-work plans that balance employee needs with workplace and operational realities.

鈥淐reating learning and working environments where everyone can participate and succeed is a core value of 91亚色鈥檚 School of Continuing Studies and mine,鈥� says Christine Brooks-Cappadocia, assistant vice-president of continuing studies at 91亚色.

"By learning from industry professionals and engaging with real-world cases, students gain the knowledge and experience to help organizations create more inclusive workplaces and ensure people have the support they need to succeed."

Graduates will be prepared to pursue roles such as disability case manager, return-to-work co-ordinator, accommodation specialist, accessibility adviser and disability management consultant.

for the inaugural Winter 2027 cohort.

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Cluett joined 91亚色 in the late 1950s, beginning his more than three decades at the University, where he taught in the Department of English and served as Chair of the graduate English program before retiring in 1989.

At 91亚色 he became known as a dedicated teacher, mentor and advocate for students.

Former students remembered Cluett as an educator who combined intellectual rigour with generosity and encouragement. Many recall his willingness to support students through academic and professional challenges, helping them navigate graduate studies, secure career opportunities and pursue paths beyond academia. Others describe him as thoughtful, principled and deeply committed to fostering independent thinking and intellectual curiosity.

Cluett's contributions to 91亚色 extended beyond the classroom. An associate of Winters College, he coached the University's women's squash team from 1979-86, later describing it as his most rewarding coaching experience. Former players remember him as a dedicated coach and mentor.

During his years at 91亚色, Cluett became increasingly interested in how universities identify and support talented students. Concerned that many promising Canadians were leaving the country to pursue post-secondary education elsewhere, and seeing limitations in scholarship programs focused primarily on grades or athletic achievement, he developed an alternative vision.

That vision led him to take early retirement from 91亚色 in 1989 to establish the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation, now known as the Loran Scholars Foundation. As founding chair and CEO, he championed an approach that emphasized character, leadership potential, resilience and community engagement alongside academic accomplishment. 91亚色 was one of five founding university partners in the program, which has since become one of Canada's most prominent undergraduate scholarship initiatives.

According to his family, Cluett considered the foundation his proudest accomplishment.

In recognition of his contributions to education and student development, 91亚色 awarded Cluett an honorary doctor of letters. Through his teaching, mentorship and the scholarship foundation he created, his influence continues to be felt by students and graduates across Canada.

Cluett was predeceased by his spouse and a granddaughter. He is survived by his three daughters, a cherished niece regarded as part of the immediate family, seven grandchildren, one great-granddaughter and a brother-in-law.

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More than 1.5 billion people worldwide live with a hearing disability, a number projected to rise significantly in the coming decades as the workforce ages. Yet many workplaces remain poorly equipped to understand or address the challenges employees with hearing disabilities face every day.

Lyons of the researches hearing diversity and workplace inclusion. He also has lived experience with hearing disabilities and says many organizations continue to overlook an important reality.

"Hearing disabilities are often misunderstood and treated as a single, uniform experience. In fact, they are quite diverse," says Lyons.

When employers fail to recognize that variation, well-intentioned efforts to support workers can fall short.

"Without recognizing this diversity, this can lead to ineffective accommodations, communication barriers, stigma and missed opportunities for employees with hearing disabilities to contribute their skills and expertise."

Lyons wanted to draw attention to the reality that these workers do not all experience the workplace in the same way. To that end, he partnered with David Baldridge of Oregon State University, another researcher with lived experience of hearing disability and years of experience studying its effects on employment. Together, they authored a paper, now published in Organizational Dynamics, that explores hearing diversity in the workplace and outlines practical, research-informed strategies for creating more inclusive work environments.

To inform the paper, Lyons and Baldridge reviewed research from a range of disciplines, including hearing science, audiology, disability studies and human resource management. They combined those findings with their own work and lived experience to identify common themes across the literature, including workplace obstacles, barriers to inclusion and strategies shown to support communication.

The scholars identified a range of recurring obstacles, from difficult-to-follow meetings and noisy work environments to conversation breakdowns and reluctance to seek accommodations. They also found that hearing experiences are far more diverse than many people realize, with employees differing in their hearing experiences as well as the communication tools and strategies they rely on.

The review further highlighted how everyday activities can become hurdles. Meetings, telephone calls, conferences, social events, work travel and even hiring processes can present obstacles for employees with hearing disabilities. Hybrid meetings can be particularly difficult because participants may struggle to see and hear everyone clearly, while social gatherings often take place in noisy environments that make conversations harder to follow.

One finding that Lyons believes receives too little attention was feels does not receive enough attention: how much mental energy people with hearing disabilities often devote to following everyday conversations, and how frequently that burden is underestimated by both others and the individuals experiencing it.

"The extensive effort that goes into keeping up with everyday conversations can be invisible to others," Lyons says.

The researchers also drew a distinction between hearing and understanding. Employees with hearing disabilities may catch parts of a conversation while missing others, particularly in noisy settings. That can make it difficult for staff to know when important information has been missed or misunderstood, helping explain why everyday interactions can require so much mental effort.

But documenting those challenges was only part of what the researchers set out to do. Recognizing the diversity of hearing experiences, Lyons and Baldridge sought to provide practical, evidence-based guidance that organizations can adapt to individual workers鈥� needs and create more inclusive workplaces.

Among their recommendations is making accessibility part of everyday practice rather than treating it as a special accommodation. Simple measures such as enabling captions, sharing written agendas and meeting summaries, encouraging one person to speak at a time and reducing background noise can make interactions easier for many employees. The authors also stress the importance of regular conversations between managers and team members about communication needs, recognizing that hearing experiences can vary widely from person to person and even from day to day.

More broadly, the researchers advocate a layered approach that combines accessible workplace design, supportive management practices and appropriate technologies, including captioning services, remote microphones and sign-language interpretation where needed. While emerging tools such as AI-powered captioning and speech-to-text services offer new opportunities to improve accessibility, Lyons and Baldridge say technology alone is not enough. Meaningful progress, they argue, comes from recognizing hearing diversity and building accessibility into everyday workplace interactions.

"We hope this work helps organizations move beyond generic accommodations toward more individualized, inclusive practices, while empowering people with hearing disabilities to share their own experiences and advocate for their communication needs," Lyons says.

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