1. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Assuring Access for Deaf Students with Multiple Disabilities in Practice Patricia Tesar & Jeffrey Shaumeyer Office for Students with Disabilities Gallaudet University

2. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Gallaudet’s Mission Statement Gallaudet University, federally chartered in 1864, is a bilingual, diverse, multicultural institution of higher education that ensures the intellectual and professional advancement of deaf and hard of hearing individuals through American Sign Language and English.

3. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education (all US) Approximately 10% had some kind of disability; of those, roughly half have more than one disability Most common disabilities reported: – Depression – Attention Deficit Disorder – Mobility Impairment Source: Thomas R. Wolarin and Patricia E. Steele, “Higher Education Opportunities for Students with Disabilities : A Primer for Policymakers”, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, June 2004.

4. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Comparison of Students with Disabilities College Students Nationwide 8% reported a disability (in 2007—2008) Of those, 5.3% reported “hearing impairment” as a major disability Gallaudet Students OSWD serves 11% of the student body 92% are hearing impaired (Deaf or Hard of Hearing) Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, B&B: 09 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study.

5. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD numbers: 142 (Fall 2007); 197 (Fall 2013), an increase of 39% Nationwide, 8.2% of university students had a disability (2009 “Baccalaureate & Beyond Longitudinal Study”, US Dept. Ed.), about 2% served by DSS offices OSWD Students : 2007—2014 OSWD Fraction of All Gallaudet Students

6. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD 7-Year Study Purposes: – Go beyond opinions – Develop OSWD student profile – Explore retention and graduation rates – Does OSWD “level the playing field”? Make objective measurements of OSWD effectiveness with factual data 465 OSWD students from academic years 2007/08 through 2013/14

7. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Students : 2007—2014 Hearing-Status Distribution

8. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Deaf / Hearing Students Served by OSWD, by Year

9. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD vs. Gallaudet Student Gender 2007—2014

10. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Students: 2007—2014 Main Ethnicities

11. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Students : 2007—2014 Disability Breakdown by Type

12. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Students : 2007—2014 Disability as Fraction of Gender

13. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Students : 2007—2014 Changes in Disability Types

14. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Multiple Disabilities Composition over 1-year period 2013-2014

15. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Students with 2 or more Disabilities Over a 1-Year Period: 2013-2014

16. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Students with Two Disabilities (2013-2014), Pairing

17. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Undergraduates (344 total), Final Status 2007—2014

18. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 2013 – 2014 Student Survey : Services Most Used Services Special Testing (35%) Note Taking (27%) Disability Counseling (18%) Extended Time (9%) Interpreting (9%) Alternative Print (7%) Most Requested Services Testing Center (15%) OSWD Study Area (15%) Mentoring Program (13%) ADHD Coaching (10%) Academic Support Group (10%)

19. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 2014 Student Survey: “I would benefit from these services” No Clear Preference

20. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Accommodating Multiple Disabilities means Multiple Tactics (I) Video as a classroom adjunct is increasingly popular – Not immediately available to visually impaired – Few videos are captioned for hearing impaired – What strategy for deaf-blind students?

21. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Accommodating Multiple Disabilities means Multiple Tactics (II) Alternative Print conflicts – Visually Impaired variously needs Braille, large print, low-contrast print, high- contrast print, computer-based readers – Hearing Impairment precludes recorded books, computer-based readers

22. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Accommodating Multiple Disabilities means Multiple Tactics (III) Testing Accommodations must address – Mobility impairments – Visual impairments – Hearing impairments – Attention-deficit disorders – Combinations of multiple disorders

23. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 Accommodating Multiple Disabilities means Multiple Tactics (IV) Gallaudet education is officially bilingual, ASL and English, nevertheless – Deaf-blind students will require tactile interpretation – At other institutions, ASL interpretation for hearing impaired, spoken interpretation for visually impaired, and tactile interpretation for deaf-blind may all be called upon at times

24. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Retention, 7-Year Average

25. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Retention, Yearly

26. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD vs. Gallaudet Retention

27. Office for Students with Disabilities 800 Florida Ave, Washington DC 20002 OSWD Graduation Rate 2007 – 2014 Students first served by OSWD as freshmen graduated, on average, in only 4.2 years Gallaudet’s overall 6-year graduation rate is generally less than 40%