Key Impact Areas

Instructional Design & Accessibility Promoting High Expectations for Success Collecting and Using Data for Decision-Making Leveraging Community Resources Developing Collaborative and Integrated Systems Compared to deaf people without a college degree1,2,3, deaf college graduates have greater career mobility, enhanced earnings, and an increased likelihood of stable employment. Deaf people who have not completed postsecondary education […]

Root Causes of Gaps in Postsecondary Outcomes of Deaf Individuals

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A review of current postsecondary outcomes for deaf1 people may seem disheartening, with significant educational attainment and employment gaps between deaf and hearing people. Across the nation, only 48% of deaf people are employed, compared to 72% of hearing people2. Furthermore, only 18% of deaf people receive bachelor’s degrees, compared to 33% of hearing people3, which is a critical concern given that […]

How to File a Complaint

Getting effective accommodations should be a smooth process. You make the request, the accommodations are provided, and the accommodations work for you. But sometimes, the process is not smooth, and you don’t get what you need. As a deaf student, you have the right to file a complaint (sometimes called a grievance) if you do […]

Transforming Your Institution: The How and Why

Deaf people often encounter barriers in education, training, and employment settings. A systems perspective can help reduce or eliminate these barriers by addressing underlying root causes of problems to create solutions that will make a lasting impact and create sustainable solutions. A systems transformation framework asks us to change our perspective: focusing on isolated issues → improving […]

Access, Belonging, and Affirmation

Deaf Postsecondary Access and Inclusion Scale 2022–2023 Authors: Jeffrey Levi Palmer, Carrie Lou Bloom, Lore Kinast, and Tia-Nikki Ivanko During the 2022–2023 academic year, NDC surveyed deaf students in higher education institutions across the nation. This report provides a comprehensive overview of survey results and offers suggestions for improving access and inclusion for deaf students on campus. […]

Sustainable Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Sign Language Interpreters & Captionists

Ensuring equitable and accessible experiences in education and training settings for deaf people includes having a qualified pool of providers. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges have been experiencing provider shortages, as well as, struggling to recruit and retain qualified providers. Knowing this, there are still many opportunities to grow and maintain provider pools. Whether you […]

2018-2019 Deaf College Student National Accessibility Report

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ACCESS Is More Than Accommodations Authors: Jeffrey Levi Palmer, Stephanie W. Cawthon, Carrie Lou Garberoglio, and Tia Ivanko This is an overview of the experiences of deaf college students in the 2018-2019 academic year. For more current information, visit the Deaf Postsecondary Access and Inclusion Survey page. Download the Full Report Recommended Citation Palmer, J. L., […]

Resources for Deaf Students

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Deaf students face barriers and challenges daily as a result of barriers within systems. The impact is that 23% of deaf youth aged 16-24 aren’t in school or working. NDC is committed to changing that by partnering with entities providing information and resources to help improve systems.

Video Remote Interpreting

Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) is a service used when the interpreter and the deaf person are in different locations. Using high-speed internet and either software or web-based platforms, the interpreter can access consumers via video and audio feeds. People can then communicate with the interpreter via their own devices, such as a laptop, tablet, or […]

Why Captioned Media Provides Equal Access

Captioning of audiovisual media not only provides essential access for deaf people, but can also benefit emerging readers, visual learners, people with auditory processing issues, non-native speakers, and many others. Captions are the textual representation of audio content in a video format. Captions convey who is speaking, environmental sounds, and spoken dialogue. Can Other Accommodations […]

Interpreters as a Reasonable Accommodation for Testing

Deaf Students and English Deaf students are highly diverse, with a broad range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds.  English and American Sign Language (ASL) are significantly different languages, each with its own syntax and grammar.  A student may have a high degree of fluency in ASL and be able to express their knowledge easily in […]

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