National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes has received a $2.1 million, three-year grant from the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project will continue from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2029.
The grant will support Deafverse Career Connections, an expansion of Deafverse that builds on the ASL-accessible workplace readiness experience in Revenge of the Deep. Career Connections help deaf youth connect what they learn in Deafverse more directly to their own interests, strengths, values, and career plans.
This work grows out of what schools, professionals, and deaf students have told us for years: they want career assessments and career guidance resources in ASL that are designed for deaf students from the start, not translated after the fact.
Career Connections will expand Deafverse in three key ways:
Career Discovery Assessment and student profile
Career Guidance Workspace
Career networking opportunities
that connect deaf youth with peers and professionals as they explore possible career paths
Deaf students, educators, and community members will help shape the intervention throughout its development. Over the three-year project, NDC will:
- Develop.
- Pilot.
- Refine.
- TestCareer Connections with deaf high school students across multiple sites.
The goal is to create an evidence-informed expansion of Deafverse that makes career development more individualized, actionable, and accessible for deaf youth. Following development and testing, Career Connections will be made available for schools, programs, professionals, and deaf students to use as part of career development and readiness activities.
“People have asked us again and again for career tools that are actually built for deaf students. Career Connections lets us build that alongside the students and communities who will use it.”
Career Connections is one of three new federal awards NDC received this fall. Read more about our other grants we received last week: OSEP + Beyond Access. We'll share more as the work moves forward. Stay connected through our newsletter.
