Deaf interpreters (DIs) are deaf individuals who provide interpreting services, translation, translanguaging, and transliteration services in signed languages, including American Sign Language (ASL), other signed languages, and various forms of vi
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Topics: Deaf 101, DSP Toolkit, Interpreting
Useful For: Administrators, Disability Services Professionals, Employers, Interpreters, Parents, Speech-to-Text Provider, Students, Teachers, Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals -
Topics: Deaf 101, Research & Data
Vocational rehabilitation (VR) services are designed to support disabled people in their pursuit of employment goals.
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Topics: Deaf 101, Legal/Policy, Other Access Topics, Research & Data
In recent years there has been an increase in the number of veterans returning home with combat-related hearing loss and tinnitus. Deaf veterans may need accommodations and support to be successful in college and the work environment.
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Topics: Research & Data
This report is an overview of both education and employment experiences of Black deaf people in the United States that also recognizes the multiple identities and experiences of Black deaf communities.
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Topics: Transition
Self-determination is when people make choices and decisions based on personal preferences and motivations. People who have stronger self-determination are able to make their own choices, manage their time, solve problems, advocate for themselves, set goals, and make plans to reach these goals.
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Topics: Transition
Work-based learning programs have a shared goal of building skills and experiences to help students reach their employment goals. These work-based programs benefit all students, including deaf students.
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Topics: Transition
This document explains work-based learning where the student actively participates in a work environment and summarizes the literature of why work based learning opportunities are important to all youth.
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Topics: Transition
Interventions, programs, and practices are evaluated for their effectiveness.
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Topics: Remote Services
Student evaluation of remote services is critical to ensure effectiveness of services received.
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Topics: Remote Services
Successful and effective services comes with cooperative contributions and efforts by all. Here are a few tips for students to encourage a positive experience using remote services.
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Topics: Remote Services
One option to offering remote services is contracting with a professional and reputable agency. Selecting a reliable and experienced vendor can positively contribute to the quality and effectiveness of the use of remote services.
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Topics: Remote Services, Speech-to-Text (Services)
Speech-to-text services can be provided onsite or remotely. Onsite speech-to-text services refers to the service provider and consumer being in the same location.
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Topics: Remote ServicesVideo remote interpreting (VRI) is a fee-based service that delivers interpreting services, often on demand, through a web-based platform on a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
VRI can be used effectively to:
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Topics: Remote Services, Research & Data
Use this tool to guide you through the process of providing remote access services. Answer each question with a “YES” (left) or a “NO” (right). At each answer point write your responses, ideas, action steps, or other notes on a to-do list.
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Topics: Research & Data
The National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC) conducted a root cause analysis of current data and existing literature to identify four underlying root causes that affect postsecondary outcomes for deaf people:
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Topics: Research & DataThis report is based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) data collected from 2012-2016 and provides both national and state statistics, including District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
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Topics: Testing
Many different test-taking issues affect deaf students, but linked to all of these issues are the differing experiences with English, professionals who do not have a full understanding of the learning experiences or backgrounds of deaf individuals, and the lack of testing standards. This summary for professionals will look at ways test accessibility for deaf individuals can be addressed.
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Topics: Deaf 101, Legal/Policy
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) work together to protect children and adults with disabilities from exclusion, discrimination, and unequal treatment in education, employment, and the community.
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Topics: Remote Services
Deaf students enrolling in colleges across the country are on the rise and securing access services can be difficult for institutions. Remote interpreting and speech-to-text services are viable options for institutions experiencing: shortages of qualified providers, specific interpreting or captioning needs for a course, or last-minute requests for urgent situations. Remote services can be a beneficial supplement or a mainstay way of providing access for students in a variety of situations. Institutions must have the knowledge necessary to evaluate requests, resources to arrange services, and the infrastructure to maintain quality and effective services.
This page provides individuals with tools to assess their institutional capacity to implement effective remote services.
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Topics: Deaf 101, Interpreting
The role of the interpreter appears to be very straightforward—to effectively facilitate communication between deaf individuals and those who are hearing. However, the complexities of the task, the varieties or types of visual interpreting, and the enormous range of qualifications brought by the interpreter make it anything but simple.
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Topics: Deaf 101
The ability to communicate defines us as human beings and as a society. It forms a foundation for decision making and relationship building. Communicating with deaf individuals is an achievable goal, even when accommodations (e.g., interpreters) are not present. The tools available to us are considerable and limited only by our creativity and desire to communicate.
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Topics: Other Access Topics
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.
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Topics: Legal/Policy, Other Access Topics
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.
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Topics: Deaf 101
The characteristics of Deaf culture are formed out of many shared life experiences rooted in a visual world designed for communication ease.
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Topics: Assistive Technology, Other Access Topics
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.
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Topics: Captioned Media
Captioning, a textual representation of the audio, is an important accessibility tool for deaf people, as well as a benefit and learning tool for others. With so many avenues to obtain or create captioned media, ensuring that instructional materials are accessible is definitely achievable.
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Topics: Deaf 101, Speech-to-Text (Services)
Today's technology affords deaf individuals access to the world like never before. Speech-to-text is one example of technology that brings access to individuals who are visual communicators.
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Topics: Speech-to-Text (Services)
Speech-to-text is one method of providing effective communication access under the law. However, it is more than simply providing technology; it requires the provision of effective services, and speech-to-text services are only as good as the skills of the service provider. When hiring a service provider, a number of qualification factors must be considered. It is imperative that institutions evaluate the quality of service to ensure that effective, real-time communication access is occurring.
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Topics: Interpreting
No discussion regarding hiring qualified interpreters is complete without an understanding of the definition of "qualified," as it pertains to the Americans With Disabilities Act, state regulation, and the concept of "effective communication."
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Topics: Legal/Policy, Transition
This two-part video explains the Americans With Disabilities Act and how it applies to postsecondary education for students who are deaf.
Useful For: Administrators, Audiologists, Employers, Interpreters, New Users, Parents, Students