Coordinating Services
Skilled Coordination Drives Effective Communication
Disability services professionals play a key role in ensuring accommodations are timely and effective. But service availability, changing student preferences, and administrative hurdles can affect service delivery. Proactive coordination helps anticipate barriers, streamline logistics, and keep deaf students at the center—supporting full participation in both academic and campus life.
Centering the Deaf Student’s Experience
Coordinating services for deaf students isn’t just about assigning interpreters or captioners—it’s a nuanced process that requires a deep understanding, specialized knowledge, and the capacity to plan and implement communication access accommodations that effectively support each student. Deaf people have unique communication preferences and educational goals that require tailored support. Effective coordination centers on knowing each individual student, ensuring interpreters and speech-to-text providers are the right fit, and creating structures that promote consistent access.
Colleges face real challenges: not enough qualified providers, growing demand in technical fields, and more students choosing remote or hybrid learning. But with good planning and student-focused practices, colleges can build systems that work.
Interactive Process Matters
Every deaf student is different. Planning effective accommodations requires understanding best practices and valuing the lived experiences of deaf students. Their input is essential. Because access needs can vary across courses, a flexible student-centered approach ensure students receive the support to fully engage–recognizing that what works in one setting may not work in another.
Accommodation Decisions are Case-by-Case
Accommodations and access strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all—they can shift based on course, setting, or situation. Flexibility, collaboration, and adaptability are essential.
Exploring Accommodation Options
Accommodations that worked in K–12 may not meet the demands of college settings, where course formats and expectations can vary widely. Students should be part of the planning, ask about their current access needs and preferences.
Centering the Student
Deaf people have varied lived experiences, and accommodation determination should be responsive to those experiences. Legal guidance on effective communication will defer to the student’s subjective experience.
Proactive Planning for Deaf Student Accommodations
Proactive planning is key to ensuring deaf students have access in learning and social environments. Waiting until a student registers can cause delays that limit meaningful participation and impact their overall college experience. Instead:
- Secure service provider and agency contracts well in advance, as agreements often go through a time-consuming procurement process.
- Start early! Hiring full-time, part-time, or hourly staff often involves lengthy processes and timelines with Human Resources.
- Take a strategic approach—build a qualified pool of service providers, know available resources, and stay current on legal and procedural requirements.
Preparing in advance not only prevents service gaps—it helps ensure students have access from day one.
Proactive Planning Tips
Explore Providers
Research local and remote providers– focus on experience, expertise, availability, costs, and certifications
Create Clear Policies
Make sure they’re student-centered and easy to follow
Build Campus Collaborations
Partner with other departments to make access a shared goal
Evaluating Services
Once services have been identified and implemented, create opportunities to collect student feedback to assess its effectiveness and whether any adjustments need to be made. Establish a feedback mechanism using multiple response formats such as:
- Offering paper feedback forms in the DS office for in-person responses
- Posting an easy-to-find online feedback form on the DS website
- Adding a feedback link to all outgoing email taglines
- Allowing students to request in-person or virtual feedback meetings
Collecting student feedback early and often helps improve services, build trust, and strengthens coordinating services systems.
Working Together Across Campus
Providing effective communication access—like interpreting or speech-to-text services—requires more than responding to individual requests. It takes coordinated planning and collaboration across departments to create consistent, campus-wide support. Here are a few ways to make it happen:
- Centralized coordination and funding to ensure timely, consistent access
- Train departments on how to support deaf students and work with service providers
- Use accessibility taglines on event materials to set clear expectations
- Make accessibility a shared responsibility, not an afterthought
Key Partners in Coordinated Access
Several departments play key roles in maintaining access services:
- Business & Contracts – Shape how interpreting and speech-to-text providers are vetted and contracted
- Human Resources – Support hiring of qualified in-house service providers
- Academic Affairs & Faculty – Plan accessible courses and teaching methods
- Events & Marketing – Model access-focused practices and expectations campus-wide
When everyone works together, campuses can offer consistent, student-focused support that truly makes a difference.
Explore This Topic
Coordinating Effective Accommodations for Deaf Students in College
Coordinating effective accommodations and services for deaf students in a college setting requires careful planning, collaboration, and a commitment to fostering belonging. Dive in to explore the essential steps involved in providing the best possible support for deaf students, ensuring accessibility, and a positive educational experience.
Coordinating Services for Deaf Students Online Learning Module
Coordinating effective accommodations and services for a range of deaf people takes time and proactive planning. While the numbers of deaf students may vary by semester, it is always a good idea to have a solid structure for planning, implementing, and evaluating services provided. This module provides an overview of key components for coordinating accommodations and services effectively for deaf students in education and training settings.
Funding & Coordination Models
The financial responsibility for providing access for deaf students must be borne by the entire institution. For example, if the budget of a student club is limited and the club is therefore concerned that it can’t cover the cost of accommodating a deaf student who is interested in joining, it is the institution as a whole which must ensure access.
