This document discusses advancing equity and inclusion for deaf students in higher education. It notes that deaf students experience isolation and barriers to participation in campus activities due to a lack of accommodations and support services. The document calls for systemic changes to structures, relationships, and attitudes to improve accessibility, inclusion and belonging for deaf students on campus. This includes centralized accessibility systems, campus-wide training, transparent policies, and including deaf students in decision-making. The goal is for colleges to move beyond legal compliance and ensure deaf students have a holistic college experience through meaningful inclusion.

1. Advancing Equity and
Inclusion for Deaf Students in
Higher Education
A
Lore Kinast, Director of Strategic Support
Kate Lewandowski, Accessibility Resources Coordinator

2. “
“Host a social gathering for Deaf people and
signers. ASL club is hearing-populated and
does not center their club on deaf culture or
language. I feel isolated as a Deaf person of
color on campus despite knowing Deaf
people are on campus but unable to contact
or reach out to them.”

3. Deaf Student Feedback
Understand that
auto captioning is
not accessibility.
Be more accountable for
professors who do not adhere to
accommodations.
They complicate the
accommodations
process for deaf
students who have
additional disabilities.
Disability resource office needs
major education and training for
Deaf students. Their empathy &
understanding are severely
lacking.

4. “Lack of ASL interpreter and captions at events or
anything outside of the classroom. I cannot just
do things. I cannot at the spur of the moment
decide to go to an event. I always have to set up
access beforehand and often people are hostile
or annoyed or have no idea how to set up access.
It is isolating.”
Participate in Campus Activities

5. Learn.
Connect.
Transform.
Our mission is to share
information, networks,
and strategies to improve
continuing education and
training for deaf people.
nationaldeafcenter.org

6. Employment Rate by Level of Education
Educational attainment increases
employment rates.
Bloom, Palmer, & Winninghoff, 2023
nationaldeafcenter.org/dashboard

7. Educational Attainment Rates By
Race and Ethnicity
Bloom, Palmer, & Winninghoff, 2023
nationaldeafcenter.org/dashboard

8. Deaf people have to navigate highly
complex and multilayered systems as
part of the pathways to postsecondary
education and training.

9. Matriculation and retention of deaf
students on campus improve when
they can participate in:
networking opportunities,
campus resources, and
extracurricular activities.

10. Colleges must strive for equity in
experiences and opportunities.
Engagement
Technology
Environment
Attitudes
Communication
Services

11. Deaf Postsecondary Access & Inclusion Survey

12. Accessibility
policies, practices
& accommodations

13. Inclusion,
belonging, and
community for
students

14. Campus awareness,
engagement, and
proximity to other
deaf people

15. Centering Students in Systems Transformation
STRUCTURES
Systems
Coherence
RELATIONSHIPS
Relational
Capacity
ATTITUDES
Equity Mindset
Kania et al., 2018

16. Common Barriers
STRUCTURES
● Inconsistent
service delivery
● Absence of clear
policies
regarding service
use
RELATIONSHIPS
● Lack of
awareness &
training
ATTITUDES
● Inaccessible interactive process
● Lack of clear leadership and
dismissal of proactive
accessible policies & practices
** LACK OF
CENTRALIZED
SYSTEMS
● Budget

17. Systemic Change: Systems Coherence
1. Explore centralized systems for accessibility
2. Provide campus-wide training and
awareness of accommodations practices
3. Be consistent and transparent with
communications about policies/practices
4. Implement person-centered and evidence-
based practices (academic, service, and
extracurricular settings)

18. Meeting institutional legal
responsibilities for ensuring
accessibility across programs and
activities should not be the floor -
it should be the ceiling.

19. Systemic Change: Relational Capacity
1. Provide space for engagement (trainings,
feedback collection)
2. Increase cross-agency collaborations
3. Include and defer to deaf people in
decision making (committees, programs,
policies)

20. Support accessibility on campus by
establishing interdepartmental
relationships with faculty, staff, and
students. Actively include deaf people
on campus committees.

21. Systemic Change: Equity Mindset
1. Self-Assess (bias, power, and privilege)
2. Learn deaf perspectives and experiences
(including multiple intersecting identities)
3. Collect deaf student feedback on access
(academic & non-academic settings)
4. Provide cultural awareness trainings

22. Improving outcomes for deaf
students (including students of
color, deafdisabled, deafblind, and
LGBTQIA+) starts with leadership
and campus personnel who believe
that systems need to be changed,
not deaf people.

23. Takeaway: Achieving Equity through Inclusion
Inclusion to a holistic college
experience should be afforded
to all deaf students.

24. Thank You!
nationaldeafcenter.org
Disability Services
Professionals Portal:
nationaldeafcenter.org/dss/
Contact Us at:
help@nationaldeafcenter.org
NDC is a technical assistance and dissemination center funded by the U.S. Department of
Education's Office of Special Education Programs #H326D210002.