This handbook was created for professors, high school teachers and vocational teachers new to interacting with Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Topics include a general understanding of deafness, classroom accommodations, and communication tips. Appendices include: (1) A Professor Shares His Experience; (2) A Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor…

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), amended in 2008, is a federal law intended to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities. It applies to employers, state and local government agencies, places of public accommodation, transportation facilities, telephone companies, and the U.S. Congress. Under Title II of the ADA,…

The teletypewriter, or TTY, is a device that lets deaf and hearing people type back and forth using regular telephone lines. The teletypewriter has been called by several names, including Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD) or Text Telephone (TT). However, a national organization, Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. (TDI), has taken a…

Telecommunications Relay Service provides full telephone accessibility to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or speech-disabled. Specially trained Communication Assistants (CAs) serve as intermediaries, relaying conversations between hearing persons and persons using a text telephone device (TTY). Relay Service is available 24 hours…

When a student who has both a vision and a hearing loss registers to take a course, each component of the course will need to be reviewed to determine if the student requires accommodations, e.g. syllabus, handouts, overheads or other AV materials, exams, and paper assignments. There is not a formula for addressing these needs because students who…

Communication Access Realtime Translation--(CART)--is the instant translation of the spoken word into English text performed by a CART reporter using a stenotype machine, notebook computer and realtime software. The text is then displayed on a computer monitor or other display device for the student who is deaf or hard of hearing to read. This…

Students who are deaf and hard of hearing have special needs that must be accommodated before they can fully benefit from various types of classroom presentation technology. An optimal classroom situation for learners who must depend primarily on visual input includes careful consideration of factors such as room set up, legibility of the media,…