Whether made of brightly-colored cotton or medical-grade materials, face masks are now a fact of life during the pandemic to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But face masks can make communication difficult, especially for deaf students, faculty, and staff at your college — and it’s an issue that transcends the classroom.

From finding face masks to facing unknown details for fall semester, disability services professionals at hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities are finding unique ways to serve deaf college students, faculty, and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Determined to provide vital transition services for deaf youth despite a global pandemic, 45 leaders in education and vocational rehabilitation (VR) from 25 states gathered online on May 28 for a special event, “Transition Planning in the Time of COVID-19,” organized by the Engage for Change | state team at the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC).

As U.S. college students grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new poll reveals the crisis is taking a unique toll on deaf students.

Seventy-four percent of deaf college students consider online learning harder than traditional learning, and many are being denied American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, according to a poll by the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes at the University of Texas at Austin.