Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Language-Hearing Caucus

H Sheen Chiou

Honoring the Contributions of Asian Pacific Islanders

“In honor of API Heritage Month, the following profiles highlight two pioneering ASHA members who have dedicated their life’s work to the advancement of API issues.”

The content above was originally published in Tan, Greta T., Yee, Michelle, Kuo, Christine Y. (2008). Honoring the Contributions of Asian Pacific Islanders. The ASHA Leader, 13 (7), 23. doi: 10.1044/leader.FTR3.13072008.np.

May is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month

“May is a month of many celebrations. In addition to being Better Hearing and Speech Month, May is also nationally designated as Asian Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month, which commemorates and recognizes the inherent diversity of API languages and cultures. It is a celebration of the achievements and contributions of API communities in America.

ASHA promotes issues related to API communities through organizations such as the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Multicultural Issues Board, and Multicultural Constituency Groups. The API Caucus is one of the six ASHA Multicultural Constituency Groups and comprises speech, language, and hearing professionals and students who are from an API background or have shown an interest in the API communities.

The API Caucus began in 1985 as a small group of speech-language and hearing professionals who held their first meeting at the ASHA National Office. Lilly Li-Rong Cheng recognized this forum as the beginning of an organization that could foster culturally and linguistically appropriate services and education for the API population. Through this forum, API professionals made presentations and began an ongoing dialogue about the API populations at ASHA, and slowly and steadily gained a presence for the API community. These events eventually led to the formal establishment of the API Caucus.” (…Read full article at http://leader.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2289757.)

The content above was originally published in Tan, Greta T. (2008). May is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The ASHA Leader, 13 (7), 23. doi: 10.1044/leader.AN2.13072008.23.