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While more than 200,000 deaf students attend colleges nationwide, many colleges and universities are often not prepared to support deaf students in all parts of their college experience. The access needed should not be dependent on each department or club budget to cover the costs for services — whether that be captioned media, speech-to-text services, or interpreters. It is the institution who is responsible for accessibility.
The National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC) partnered with the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) to explain how best to provide accessibility for deaf students and how to make the most of your budget through a centralized system.
Centralized systems, policies, and procedures can benefit schools by creating practical approaches that reduce potential gaps in a student’s education, avoid legal ramifications, and support inclusion of diverse student populations.
How is a Centralized System Different?
You might be curious as to the differences between a decentralized versus a centralized system. In a decentralized system, every office or part of the organization is responsible for providing their own accessibility options. In a centralized system, access services are coordinated through one office and use a campus-wide budget for covering accommodation costs. Some places do have a hybrid approach. They may have a center for coordination of services, but the budget is handled by individual departments.
Within a decentralized system, there are often gaps in oversight. Departments typically have angst about providing accommodations because they did not yet anticipate access costs within their own departmental budgets. Or if the staff are not familiar with the ADA or Section 504 requirements, they may not realize their responsibility to provide these accommodations.
As a reminder, when a system fails to provide equal opportunity, lawsuits and Office of Civil Rights investigations can happen. Previous case law and legal requirements make it clear that regardless of whether an organization is public or private, their programs and services must be accessible to deaf people.
Looking at recent cases, such as the NAD v. Harvard and NAD v. MIT, we can see a shift toward a more proactive and centralized process to address the gaps in current accessibility.
In a centralized system, access is prioritized for the whole institution. You will have a one-stop shop on campus that is designed to manage and facilitate requests via staff who have the correct knowledge and skills to coordinate services effectively. These processes put access first and do not put the burden on the student.
Why is a Centralized System Better?
NDC did a survey of deaf students from colleges across the country. It focused on the accessibility of their campuses, as well as common barriers and challenges. The students rated access on these six different levels:
Presenter Bios
Zainab Alkebsi: As Policy Counsel at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), Zainab is responsible for providing analysis, recommendations, and counsel on policy issues affecting deaf and hard of hearing people. She is President of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association and currently serves on various federal advisory committees.
Stephanie Zito: A Technical Assistance Coordinator on the NDC | Help team, Stephanie is a certified sign language interpreter and trained C-Print captionist, with interpreting and captioning services experience in postsecondary settings. She is currently President of the National Association of Interpreters in Education (NAIE).
- Attitudes
- Campus Technology
- Communications
- Environment
- Services
- Social Engagement
- Campus Accessibility Guide
- Evaluation Tool for Serving Deaf Students
- Improving Campus Access (Professional Development Course)
- Disability Services Professionals Toolkit
- Research Summarized! Designing Accessible Environments
Presentation FAQ
- Does registration cost anything? No. This event is FREE for all viewers.
- Who can attend the live panel? Anyone interested are also welcome!
- Will interpreters or real-time captioning be provided? Yes, both are being provided. If you have additional accommodation needs, please email [email protected].
- Will a recording be made available to those who could not attend? We are pleased to announce that NDC Live events will have recordings available after-the-fact. Availability and instructions for accessing these recordings will be available on our website.
- Will professional development credits be offered for this panel? Yes, the event has been pre-approved for .1 PS RID CEUs and 1 CRC Clock Hour. You must be present for the entire event. There will be a code shared at the beginning and end of the presentation that you will use to submit for professional development credits.
- I did not get one of the event codes. Can I still receive professional development credit? No, unfortunately both event codes must be used to verify that you attended the full duration of the event. We do not provide the codes after they have been shown during the event.
- I need a certificate of attendance for the event, but not professional development credits, how do I receive one? You must use event codes provided during the live event and complete the professional development form which will automatically generate a certificate that is emailed to you.
- Will professional development credits be available for recorded events? No, professional development credits are available only for live events.
