Topic: Other Access Topics

Being proactive means to initiate changes yourself rather than reacting to things that happen. This approach is especially effective for postsecondary institutions when developing plans for creating campuswide access for deaf students. In the past, institutions may have taken a "wait-and-see" approach to the planning of accommodations for students with disabilities. However, many institutions are taking a proactive stance on planning how students with disabilities will access the full spectrum of programs and events available on campus.

The term universal design was coined by architect Ronald L. Mace to describe the concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetically pleasing and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) brings this concept of inclusive design into the educational setting. UDL research shows that each student learns in a unique manner, so a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective.

All postsecondary campuses, including community colleges, vocational training programs, and four-year universities, must ensure their programs, activities, and meetings are accessible to all visitors.

Deaf students continue to explore academic opportunities in the college setting. They often seek to participate in foreign language courses alongside their hearing peers rather than settling for alternatives to foreign language requirements. Frequently, both students and staff members are unsure of how to achieve successful access and accommodations for these courses. Effective approaches are determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration a variety of factors, including the student's accommodation needs, available resources, and the purpose of the course in the overall academic program for the student.

Graduation season is a busy time for disability service offices, and many professionals have questions about providing communication access at graduation ceremonies. The law is clear that institutions must provide access to public events and ensure an equitable experience for deaf individuals. The purpose of the following information is to assist postsecondary institutions in planning for communication access.

Field experiences, such as internships, practicums, and clinicals, offer students the opportunity to gain the real-world knowledge and skills they need to become gainfully employed. Deaf students have a right to these experiences in the same manner as their hearing peers.

More and more deaf students are pursuing study abroad opportunities which often raises many questions for disability service offices on what steps to take. Study abroad experiences provide opportunities for students to learn essential social and professional skills to be marketable in today’s workforce. Many factors can influence study abroad accommodations and there isn’t a uniform set of guidelines followed by all institutions in regards to coordinating services for deaf students participating in study abroad experiences. Institutions and deaf students can work together using the tools found below to address important questions including emergency planning, service providers, travel logistics, and more.

Note taking is the practice of capturing important pieces of information in a systematic way. It is not limited to the classroom. Note taking is an important accommodation in any situation requiring learning, including job sites and internships. Effective note taking is a skill that is acquired through training and strengthened through practice. It is an accommodation that deaf individuals rely on when they are in an environment of learning. In fact, research conducted with deaf college students indicates that most students view note taking as a very useful support.

Improved access and advancements in technology have allowed deaf individuals who might not have previously considered a career in the healthcare field to now pursue this option. Nonetheless, barriers continue to exist, caused in part by the technical standards established by academia and training programs. Technical standards are a set of abilities and characteristics a person is required to possess to gain admission to an educational or training program.

In today's world, emergency preparedness is an important topic. Too often, deaf individuals do not have access to emergency alerts. Visual emergency alerting systems provide equal access and allow deaf people to evacuate safely during emergencies. Both the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act also mandate reasonable accommodations, which include visual fire alarms.

Captions are the textual representation of audio content in a video format, communicating spoken dialogue, sound effects, and speaker identification. Captions provide essential access for the more than 30 million Americans with a hearing loss. They also benefit emerging readers, visual learners, non-native speakers, and many others.

One of the longstanding issues in supporting postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and completion for deaf individuals is the lack of comprehensive data to identify individual and systemic factors that affect these outcomes. Although there have been several efforts to collect data about the transition from high school to postsecondary settings, including careers, the field often does not have the rigor or depth of information to make truly data-based decisions about policies, programming, or service provision for deaf individuals.

This brief summarizes research related to the benefits and barriers of online learning for deaf students.

This study investigated patterns of educational accommodations use between high school and postsecondary settings by deaf students.