Here’s the disconnect: colleges are still designed around 18-year-olds with minimal responsibilities.
But that’s not who’s showing up.
Students are juggling work, kids, military service, commutes. Deaf students even more so. And when institutions don’t adapt, barriers appear—but deaf nontraditional students hit walls first.
We call these folks “nontraditional” or “post-traditional” students. It’s a catch-all term for adult learners coming back to school, student parents, veterans, working professionals, and anyone whose path through college doesn’t look like the straight line from high school to graduation.
Deaf students show up in these categories way more often than hearing students do. And because they’re bouncing between multiple offices—disability services, financial aid, academic departments—they’re the first ones to spot where the system actually works and where it falls apart.
What is a nontraditional student?
- Over age 23 when starting college
- Working full time while in school
- Parenting or caregiving for family
- Military service background
- First-generation college students
- Commuting to campus
- Attending multiple institutions
You might think this describes edge cases. It doesn't.
of college students are considered to be non-traditional students.
1 in 5 students are parents
1 in 3 students transfer schools
This is the majority, not the exception.
Deaf students fit this profile even more often.
Most are working, many are raising families, and a majority start at community college — often transferring between schools along the way.
work off campus
attend community college
first generation
average age
enrolled
years after high school
live off campus
married and/or raising children
veterans
Sources: Undergraduate Enrollment Report • NCES DataLab
What does that actually look like? Picture a 35-year-old deaf student who just went back to school after working for over a decade. This is their first time asking for interpreters on their own—no mentors to walk them through it. They’re driving 45 minutes to campus for classes, so they’re not really part of campus life. Most social events happen at night or are geared toward 18-year-olds. When they finally check out career services, the advisor doesn’t know how to help connect ten years of work experience to new career goals.
It adds up. Fast.
Deaf Student Veterans: A Case Study
Deaf student veterans are a good example of how these barriers stack on each other.
About 17% of deaf undergraduates are veterans. But here’s the problem: their degree completion rate is lower. 19.4% versus 27.1% for hearing veterans. Why? Because the barriers are different, and they’re complex.
Say a service member loses their hearing during deployment or combat. They come to college and suddenly they’re dealing with hearing loss, navigating disability accommodations for the first time, learning how campus actually works, and figuring out GI benefits. All while being older, possibly working, and maybe raising a family.
To get basic information or support, they end up coordinating across disability services, veterans affairs, financial aid, and their academic department. That’s exhausting. Some smart campuses are now placing veteran liaisons who actually know how to connect those dots. But that’s still the exception.
Campus Connectedness Challenges
Here’s what the data shows: deaf students report way lower participation in campus life. It’s not that they don’t want to be involved.
According to the DPAIS survey:
say they’d participate in campus activities
have work-study jobs (compared with 5% of hearing students)
live on campus
of institutions have on-site childcare
When you’re managing a lot of things at once, you can’t participate. It’s not because you’re uninterested—the structure just doesn’t work.
Take this: a deaf student lives 25 minutes away and has to pick up their kids at 5 p.m. There’s a club meeting at 5. Unless someone can last-minute cover childcare, they’re out. And it gets worse. Campus policy says you need 48 hours to request an interpreter. But what if your schedule changes the same day? Your kid gets sick. Your shift changes. Your ride falls through. That 48-hour policy? It stops being an accommodation and becomes a wall.
The pattern is clear: events and policies get designed around people who live on campus and have predictable schedules. Everyone else gets squeezed out. Real accessibility means asking: Can someone do this if they’re not here full-time? Is this actually flexible, or is it just theoretically flexible?
5 Ways Institutions Can Support Deaf Nontraditional Students
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Expand Flexible Learning Options
Online, hybrid, part-time, self-paced—but actually flexible, not just theoretically. Offer courses at multiple times and implement rolling enrollment so students don't wait for fall or spring. Create modular courses so students can adjust their load depending on their semester. The point: remove the "you have to fit our schedule" assumption.
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Make services accessible beyond 9-5
Your office closes at 5 p.m.? That's fine if you're on campus all day. Not fine if you work until 6. Offer evening advising and virtual tutoring. Record workshops so students can watch asynchronously—crucial for deaf students arranging interpreters. Keep support open during closures (holidays, weather, breaks). Have a virtual drop-in for quick questions. Think: if it's not during your office hours, you're not actually accessible.
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Design for Commuter and Off-Campus Students
Commuters are the majority now. Give them commuter lounges, drop-in events (not everything at 7 p.m.), shuttle support, and hybrid programming so they can participate in person or online. Extend hours for key services. Montclair State's Commuter "Pit Stop Map" is a good example—a real place for off-campus students to belong.
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Smooth Transfer and Reentry Pathways
Use state standards like Texas Common Course Codes so credits transfer cleanly. Assign transfer-specific advisors who can spot gaps early. Host real transfer orientations that teach disability services and financial aid navigation, not just campus tours. Simplify re-entry—someone coming back after five years shouldn't reapply to every service.
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Build Accessibility Into Systems from the Start
Don't retrofit. Involve deaf students in system design before launch. Create a feedback loop that actually fixes things (not just "thanks for the feedback"). Establish a student advisory board with deaf and nontraditional students—they'll spot barriers you won't. Train staff across departments so accessibility isn't siloed. Audit policies for hidden barriers: the 48-hour interpreter notice, evening-only events, on-campus housing requirements. Ask: who does this exclude?
Moving Forward
If you’re leading a college or running a department, start here:
- How can we schedule events so people with changing schedules can actually show up?
- How do we create spaces—physical and online—where students who aren’t here constantly still feel like they belong?
- Are our accessibility rules actually flexible, or are we just hiding our rigidity behind a thicker policy manual?
The real question isn’t how to make students fit higher education. It’s how to make higher education actually work for the students who show up.
