Resources: accessibility

"She's not paying attention; she's not trying!"

A college professor in California recently sparked a national controversy with these words, shouted at a hard of hearing student in their class when the student failed to respond in what the professor believed was an appropriate amount of time.

With the rapid shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more essential than ever to expand your teaching toolbox to make online classes fully accessible — especially for students who are deaf or have diverse educational needs.

Recently, Harvard University settled a class action lawsuit filed in 2015 by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). The case revolved around the lack of captioning for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). NAD also sued the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for similar reasons and that case is still being litigated.

[Disponible en español.]

As a child, National Deaf Center’s community engagement coordinator, Diego Guerra, was the only deaf person in a large, Mexican-American family, which spoke both English and Spanish. Though some extended family members used a few signs, most did not know American Sign Language (ASL).

As a child, National Deaf Center’s community engagement coordinator, Diego Guerra,

September is National Preparedness Month. The 2019 theme, “Prepared, Not Scared”, is a good reminder that this is an ideal time to think about emergency planning and your school's readiness to respond — in particularly for your deaf students. Are warning systems and communication plans accessible to everyone? Here is a variety of strategies and tools to incorporate into your college's emergency plan that ensures deaf people have access to critical information. 

The National Deaf Center is proud to participate in AHEAD 2019, the annual international conference of the Association on Higher Education and Disability on July 9-13 in Boston, Massachusetts.