Deaf Education: What's Out There?

Are you deaf or hearing impaired and looking for college opportunities? There are a few schools with special deaf education programs and extensive deaf communities that you should know about.

Cal State University Northridge Open to Deaf Students
Want to be part of a major university, but still feel a connection to many others like yourself? More than 220 deaf and hearing impaired students attend this university, allowing the Deaf CSUNians to be one of the biggest chartered organizations on campus.

CSUN was one of the first universities to open its doors to deaf and hard of hearing students, and today it provides a rich array of deaf education resources  just for them. Located on campus, the National Center on Deafness provides support services to students who are deaf or hearing impaired. The resource library contains the most complete source of books and media related to deafness anywhere in the western United States.

Deaf Studies at CSUN
Cal State Northridge is one of only two institutions in the U.S. to offer a complete undergraduate program in the field of Deaf Studies. The Deaf Studies program covers careers from sign language interpreters to government specialists, speech pathologists to program administrators and more.

Deaf Studies sponsors many campus and community activities, including guest speakers, “Deafestivals”  and ASL Deaf Theatre Productions. Additionally, the Deaf Studies Association of students works to broaden cultural awareness on campus. It offers support groups for Deaf Studies majors and hosts professional workshops, academic panels, social gatherings and more, which include the outside community.

Check out more information about Cal State University Northridge.

Another Deaf Education Program: National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Across the continent in New York, the Rochester Institute of Technology offers the world’s first and largest technological college for deaf and hearing impaired students. These students, who currently number about 1,100, share their educational experience with approximately 14,000 hearing students at the institute’s seven other colleges.

Most of the undergraduates live on campus, where residence halls are fully networked with strobe light fire alarms and telephone amplifiers. A learning center and classrooms boast state-of-the-art computers and multimedia technologies, while computer engineering facilities, digital printing presses, laser optics lab and a robotics program are all on campus.

Special Services for the Deaf at NTID
Services for deaf and hearing impaired students include notetakers, tutors and the largest interpreting staff at any college in the country. In the classroom, teachers employ several communication strategies such as sign language, speech, fingerspelling, writing and visual aids. Speech-language pathologists and audiologists located on campus help with student needs ranging from hearing aids to language services.

Hearing-impaired NTID student Christie Ong exemplifies what can be accomplished at the college. The daughter of Indonesian emigrants, Ong is the first deaf or hearing impaired student to major in the institute’s advertising and public relations program, and the first student ever to hold the Major Student  Organization liaison position on RIT’s Student Government. She also sits on the RIT’s President’s Commission on Pluralism and Inclusion and is a member of DOVES, a club for deaf female students.

Find out more about the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. 

Deaf Education at Gallaudet University
The world's only university where all the programs and services are designed with deaf and hard of hearing students in mind features bilingual classes taught in English and American Sign Language (ASL). Choose from more than 40 majors in arts and sciences in the undergraduate program, or  pursue a specialist degree, doctoral degree or certificate. You can even design your own major by combining classes at Gallaudet with offerings at any of 13 institutions of higher learning in the Washington, D.C. area.

The university, founded in the Civil War era, hosts an abundance of leadership institutes and symposiums on issues and topics that affect people who are deaf or hard of hearing and those whose lives they touch. A pair of children's schools on campus, one for K--8 and another at the high school level, support research into best practices for primary and secondary deaf education at the Clerc Center. 

Deaf Student Life and School Fees
Approximately 1,500 students provide a social framework for various clubs and programs ranging from NCAA football to putting on plays in ASL at the school theater. A Greek system flourishes, and students can elect to take part in summer programs. Let's not forget that the school sits in our nation's capitol, home to a plethora of museums and other cultural and political phenomena that are impossible to find elsewhere.

Supported by a healthy endowment fund, Gallaudet continues an extensive program of erecting new buildings and refurbishing existing ones. The school offers a unique tuition and fee schedule based on national affiliation. Surprisingly affordable for Americans, the rates double if you're from out of the country, although room and board is a flat fee. Scholarships and financial aid, as at the above institutions, is available.

Read more about Gallaudet University.

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