Deaf Services at the DRC provides assistance to enrolled D/deaf or hard-of-hearing students so that they have appropriate aids or communication accommodations to fully participate in university academic programs, services, and activities. We utilize an individualized approach that meets the unique needs of each student.
Among other accommodations, the following services are often used by D/deaf or hard of hearing students.
American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreter
American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual language with its own syntax and grammar. The shape, placement, movement of the hands, facial expressions, and body movements all play important parts in conveying information. ASL interpreters are used in classrooms, discussion sections, labs, meetings, seminars, orientations, and other campus activities.
Assistive Listening Device
An Assistive Listening Device (ALD) or FM System is used to assist with hearing in class. An ALD increases a student’s ability to hear in numerous situations, such as rooms that are large, crowded, or noisy. The speaker wears a microphone that works in conjunction with a receiver paired with a Headphone, Hearing-aid or Cochlear Implant to transmit audio directly to the listener’s ear. Students can check an ALD out from ITS.
Professional Live Captioner
Our Remote Live Captioners provide instantaneous transcription of the spoken word into text that is read on a personal device such as a phone, laptop or tablet screen. This is commonly used in Lecture based contexts.
Video Captioning and Audio Transcription
Video Captioning provides on screen text of the audio portion of a video recording. Video captions may appear as closed captions or open captions. Closed captions are optionally displayed and can be turned on or off at the discretion of the viewer. Open captions cannot be turned off and they are permanently displayed in the video.
Audio Transcription is the documented text of spoken word from an audio file such as a podcast. It is important for captions and transcriptions to have accurate spelling, be grammatically correct, and for the timing to be in sync timing as it may affect the message being conveyed. Because of this, human captions are recommended over auto-generated captions.