Kathryn Woodcock, Ph.D., O.M.C., P.Eng., is the first deaf woman to receive a PhD in engineering. She was deafened progressively, graduating from a regular high school with a severe hearing loss. She continued at the University of Waterloo (Canada) where she studied Systems Design Engineering and worked for six different companies during cooperative work terms. By the time she completed her bachelor’s degree, she was profoundly deaf above 900 Hz, yet Dr. Woodcock would not meet another deaf person until ten years later. Not having the ability to sign, she was limited to lipreading—in the few cases where it was not impossible—copying from blackboards, and hoping for help from classmates (few of whom knew she had any hearing loss) to understand assignments and homework.

She became functionally deaf, unable to hear more than low-frequency environmental noise and partial vowel sounds, within four years of taking the position of Vice-President of a large Toronto hospital at the age of 24. Despite the obvious obstacles with communication, she held this position for eight years, ultimately responsible for a $20 million budget and 600 employees in six departments. Simultaneously, she served on numerous industry, professional and community boards and committees, presented papers and lectured internationally on ergonomics, safety, and reasonable accommodation, earned a Master’s in Systems Design Engineering—and learned sign language, renovated a Victorian house, and commuted 1000 km per week. Most of her communication accommodations during this time were made by lipreading and expert secretarial support, with interpreters in external activities, as she only learned to sign near the end of her tenure at the hospital.

The University of Toronto’s full-time study requirement for the doctorate entailed leaving her position at the hospital, but Dr. Woodcock continued with community service, becoming the first deaf President of The Canadian Hearing Society (board), member of the Minister of Health’s Advisory Committee on Hearing Aid Services, the Ontario Council of Regents, and the first Chair of the College Standards and Accreditation Council, and also the first Canadian director of the Association of Late-Deafened Adults and the National Captioning Institute. She served on four program committees for the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, and organized one conference. Although interpreting or real-time reporting was generally available for her community service roles, it was available in only one course during her doctorate. She received the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship (O.M.C.) and other honours and awards for her community service and advocacy from several organizations, including Professional Engineers of Ontario, Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, the Association of Late-Deafened Adults and the Ontario Association of the Deaf.

Prior to completing her doctoral research, Dr. Woodcock accepted a three-year visiting professorship at Rochester Institute of Technology and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, where she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Industrial Engineering (predominantly to hearing students) and advised deaf students regarding engineering majors. While holding this full time position, she completed her doctoral data collection and analysis, wrote and defended her dissertation, and had a daughter—all within one year. On the day of her successful defense at University of Toronto, Dr. Woodcock received an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering. In addition to her doctoral research into accident investigators’ problem-solving, she also undertook research related to assistive technology, including human-factors requirements for automatic speech recognition and remote real-time reporting.

At the conclusion of her visiting appointment to RIT/NTID, Dr. Woodcock returned to Canada to continue her research and is also involved in consulting, training, and speaking engagements. For two years, she managed an accident prevention research and policy group at the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board. Since then, she has been an Associate Professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health at Ryerson University teaching  courses in occupational safety and ergonomics. She is also an adjunct scientist of the Institute for Work and Health. She created The Deafened People Page in 1996, and her book “Deafened People: Adjustment and Support” was recently published by University of Toronto Press.