Academic accommodations for students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing may include:

An interpreter who provides communication access in sign language. Interpreting requests for events outside of the classroom will need to be made by the sponsoring department or organization. 

Student responsibility: Generate LOA for the accommodation and email sds-deafhoh@uiowa.edu applicable course details. 

SDS responsibility: Contact provider to schedule the interpreter. Instructor notified via email by SDS that a student in their class will be utilizing this accommodation. SDS will attend the first class that the interpreter will be present to ensure attendance and assist with identifying a location in the class that they can provide their services. 

Instructor responsibility: Interpreter may seek assistance on identifying an area that they can stand to provide services without impeding any learning material. 

SDS works with classroom instructors to ensure captioned videos or transcribed podcasts are used during class. Refer to Media Accessibility Guidelines below. 

Student responsibility: Generate LOA for the accommodation and email sds-deafhoh@uiowa.edu applicable course details. 

SDS responsibility: Email instructor instructions for video captioning. Tier3 ICON Support is notified and creates a folder in ICON for uploading videos to be accurately captioned. 

Instructor responsibility: Follow instructions in the email received from SDS. Add any videos/clips to the ICON folder to be captioned and use the Qualtrics link provided to submit any YouTube videos needing to be captioned.  Inaccessible media must not be shown in class until accessible media is available for all students. 

CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation), C-Print®, and TypeWell are Speech-to-text captioning technology. Student Disability Services works to secure CART or TypeWell services for students who request services.

Student responsibility: Generate LOA for the accommodation and email sds-deafhoh@uiowa.edu applicable course details. 

SDS responsibility: Notify provider of student schedule, email instructor directions and attend first scheduled class to provide support.  

Instructor responsibility: Create/provide SDS with a Zoom link to be used for the course following instructions provided by SDS.

ALD is a personal amplified listening system primarily for individual use. It consists of two devices: a transmitter/microphone for the speaker and a receiver for the listener. The receiver with earphones, a neckloop, or an ear bud will allow direct audio from the microphone to the student without extraneous noise. FM systems are available at SDS and can be loaned out to qualified students at no charge on a semester-by-semester basis.

Overview of the accommodation process for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students:  

  1. Complete application and intake with Student Disability Services  
  2. Each semester the student shares their Letter of Accommodation with their instructor(s) 
  3. The student notifies Student Disability Services that they have reached out to their instructors and requests services 
  4. Student Disability Services works with the instructor to ensure accommodations are met including arranges service providers  
  5. Student Disability Services communicates with the student and instructor when requests are confirmed 
  6. The instructor supports the service providers throughout their course and keeps the service provider and student’s information confidential 
  7. The student informs Student Disability Services when they are going to miss class, when there are changes to their schedule, or when their accommodations are not being met.  

Media Accessibility Guidelines

Instructors who have students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in their classes need to consider the accessibility of the media they plan to use. These instructors will be notified in advance before the semester begins by the student sharing their Letter of Accommodation and then by Student Disability Services. Instructors who intend to use DVD, VHS, or web-based videos and/or podcasts in their course should be aware that they are responsible for offering captioned versions of course materials. Videos are accessible when they are captioned and podcasts are accessible when a written transcript accompanies the audio file. Please note that automatic captions on some platforms are not accurate and might need to be recaptioned. If a video is not captioned or a podcast does not have a transcript, instructors will need to arrange for an accessible version to be produced. Instructors should plan ahead by allowing up to two weeks for transcription and captioning services. Including captions is part of best teaching practices and guidelines for Universal Design for Learning. Inaccessible media must not be shown in class until accessible media is available for all students. 

Student Disability Services is available to assist instructors with locating captioned videos, adding captions to videos, and showing videos with captions in classrooms and online courses for classroom materials. Requests are encouraged to be sent as soon as possible by contacting our office or for students registered with SDS their Access Consultant. 

For questions regarding Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, please contact sds-deafhoh@uiowa.edu.