There are over 135,000 deaf/hard of hearing students enrolled in postsecondary institutions in the U.S. However, deaf students who use sign language may not be aware of their sign language skills, resulting in accommodations that do not provide full access to postsecondary course content and reduced degree completion rates compared to their…

"Sign Language Studies" is introducing a new section titled "Reports on Ongoing Research." These short research briefs are intended to provide a format for researchers to report on projects for which research is ongoing but for which a timely research brief would be of interest to the "Sign Language Studies" (SLS)…

Teachers and speech-language specialists at New York's Early Childhood Center, Rochester School for the Deaf, gather regularly to talk about their students and discuss strategies for expediting students' language development. These communities of practice meeting offer a collaborative approach to understanding students and helping improve their…

American Sign Language (ASL) is one of the most commonly taught languages in North America. Yet, few assessment instruments for ASL proficiency have been developed, none of which have adequately demonstrated validity. We propose that the American Sign Language Discrimination Test (ASL-DT), a recently developed measure of learners' ability to…

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a unique technological institute comprised of eight colleges, including the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. At the institute, deaf students and deaf culture intermingle (not always seamlessly) with students from other nations, states, and cities. Like most other universities, its students are…

This article describes the mediated American Sing Language (ASL) presentation of technical vocabulary and definitions within the context of a web-based astronomy course for first year students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY). Deaf students showed achievement gains with fewer…