A community college came to the National Deaf Center (NDC) with a practical question: Is an ASL-fluent tutor actually different from providing an interpreter with a hearing tutor?
They were trying to hire an ASL-fluent English tutor for deaf students — and needed research to make the case.
Direct Communication Matters
Deaf students may receive tutoring from hearing tutors with interpreters providing communication access. Interpreters can be an important part of access, but interpreted tutoring and direct communication are not necessarily the same experience.
Tutoring depends on interaction: asking questions, clarifying, receiving feedback, and trying another approach when something does not make sense.
Interpreted tutoring
Direct communication
A student should be focused on understanding the content, not deciphering communication between the tutor, interpreter, and themselves.
Research comparing direct and interpreted instruction offers an important example. Kurz and colleagues found that deaf students in grades 6–9 learned more science content through direct ASL instruction from deaf teachers than through interpreted instruction, even when highly qualified interpreters were used.
The study focused on younger students and science, not college tutoring. Still, it highlights an important distinction between having communication access and communicating directly with the person providing instruction.
Accessible Tutoring Supports Student Success
Recent NDC research found that deaf students with access to dedicated tutoring services reported higher campus access and inclusion ratings. Dedicated tutoring was one of the stronger predictors identified in the study.
A tutoring center can be open to every student and still not be equally accessible. Hearing students may be able to walk into “drop-in” tutoring whenever they need it. Deaf students who need communication access may have to plan ahead, request services, and coordinate access before they can use that same resource. When a drop-in service requires advance planning, deaf students lose some of the spontaneity and convenience the service is intended to provide.
Available does not always mean accessible.
Direct communication tutoring can reduce that friction and support more immediate interaction between the student and tutor.
Shared Language and Culture Can Strengthen Tutoring
Research also points to the importance of language within the tutoring relationship. Kenney’s exploratory study of deaf peer tutors and deaf students in a college writing center found that peer tutors provided important linguistic and cultural scaffolding. Tutors drew on their knowledge of challenges students may experience when moving from ASL to academic English, and shared language supported clearer, more effective explanations.
Kenney also identified deaf peer tutors as valuable linguistic resources who can share cultural and linguistic knowledge with deaf students and with other tutors working with deaf students.
Communication was also a key finding in a survey of deaf college students. Communication skills received the highest ratings among tutor characteristics, with students emphasizing the importance of tutors being able to communicate easily and fluently with them. The study also noted that difficulty communicating clearly in a student’s preferred mode may negatively affect motivation.
The broader takeaway is straightforward:
Students are more likely to use academic support when communication within that support actually works for them.
What Colleges Can Do
Instead of asking only, “Do we offer accessible tutoring?” colleges can ask:
Questions Colleges Should Ask
- Can deaf students communicate directly with their tutor?
- Can they ask questions and receive feedback easily?
- Does the tutor understand their communication and learning needs?
- Could ASL-fluent or deaf peer tutors strengthen existing academic support?
Interpreters remain an important part of access, while directly accessible tutoring offers another option colleges can consider when developing academic support.
For students and families: ask whether tutoring programs offer ASL-fluent tutors, deaf peer tutors, or other support that matches how you communicate and learn.
