This is one in a series of reports intended to assist postsecondary institutions in developing and maintaining special services of quality as needed by their deaf and hard of hearing students. Each report has been prepared with postsecondary administrators, faculty, and staff uppermost in mind, and particularly those most likely to have a role in providing services to these students. It is anticipated that these reports will be useful also to deaf and hard of hearing students in gaining more information about services for which they may be eligible.
A challenge in authoring and editing each of these reports is to avoid giving the impression that all the information they contain pertains equally to all deaf and hard of hearing students at the postsecondary level. Of course this is not so. These students are individuals first, and their needs and wishes for special services and other accommodations will vary, as will characteristics of the particular colleges and universities they as individuals choose to attend.
Also, it is a challenge to write about needs and services for both deaf and hard of hearing students together. While they do share a hearing loss, the magnitude of their hearing loss ranges collectively from mild to profound. But while the special needs of deaf students may be more apparent than those of hard of hearing students, the special needs of hard of hearing students are no less real.
Fifteen reports are scheduled for distribution in 1997 and 1998, each with a different focus and each authored by a working committee of experts on a particular subject. All are members of a National Task Force on Quality of Services for Postsecondary Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. This task force was formed in 1994 and numbers 100 members associated with 32 two and four-year colleges in 28 states and provinces in the United States and Canada.
Readers are free to cite information and views from each of the reports and to duplicate and share copies. In return, they are asked to cite the names of its authors and make bibliographic reference to the report.
