Who at the institution has the primary responsibility to collect data? Is it specifically and solely geared towards disability services office?
Effective data collection, involving both qualitative and quantitative methods like surveys, evaluations, and check-ins, is crucial for gaining comprehensive insights into the experiences of deaf students in college. Collecting data from deaf students is essential because this is a way for disability service providers to identify barriers, understand additional needs, and explore support strategies. Student input serves as valuable data, telling a story about deaf students’ campus experiences to facilitate informed decision-making to improve the student’s overall college experience and the services they receive. Collaboration with different campus departments for data collection and analysis proves beneficial, fostering evidence-based practices that contribute to improved outcomes for deaf students
At Madison College, we have the interpreter coordinator gather feedback from all students using communication access services. There are regular informal check-ins, but having documentation from this specific group of students is key for our campus. There are several surveys that go out to all students registered with the Disability Resource Services office, but these ask questions about general satisfaction with case management. The communication access survey asks specifically about interpreters and real-time writers and allows space for personal comments on individual providers. There is also room for information to be provided about technology issues or triumphs, as well as student preferences regarding VRI, remote real-time writers, and transcripts. After reviewing feedback, we also have opportunity to provide staff and contracted providers with accolades and appreciation. This aspect is my favorite part, and I see renewed passion and connection between providers and students when there is clear confirmation of preferences.
I love this conversation about collecting student feedback as part of data collection. A thought, why it the only time deaf individuals are asked to provide feedback on Access Services during their college experience? Communication access service providers are a business entity and most businesses are committed to improving their customer experience yet I have never heard of a communication access provider doing follow up with their deaf customers. Any thoughts on this?
@janamauldin when/how often does the gathering of feedback happen on your campus? Do you find that there is a peak time for gathering more responses during a specific time during the semester/school year?
Latoya Dixon
Accessibility Resource Specialist
[email protected]
NDC is a technical assistance and dissemination center funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs #H326D210002. Project Officer: Dr. Louise Tripoli. Disclaimers: 1) The contents of this email do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the federal government. 2) NDC does not provide legal advice and any information shared should not be considered as such. 3) NDC does not endorse any specific products/services/vendors and any information shared should not be considered as such. 4) NDC uses "deaf" in an all-inclusive manner to include people who may identify as deaf, deafblind, deafdisabled, hard of hearing, late-deafened, and hearing impaired.
@latoya We used to gather feedback once per semester at the end of term. But we realized that students didn't always feel comfortable reaching out when things weren't going well... unless they were really bad. So we wanted to give students the opportunity to provide feedback after a few weeks of working with providers. This gave us insight into the "not so great" situations that could be supported by having a team, offering more direct guidance for prep, additional accommodations, or even a provider switch. We decided to send the same survey at the end of the semester, and we noticed students started thinking about their next semester and requested specific people to work with. This helped us have a starting point (student-centered) with the puzzle of scheduling!
