Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), gives individuals who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing the right to accessible communication. The ADA mandates that public or private entities are responsible for providing this accessibility. Radford University proudly supports deaf and hard of hearing individuals by offering accommodations such as Assistive Listening Devices (ALD), quality Interpreting Services, and Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) Services.

Individuals with Deaf and Hard of Hearing needs require accommodations, contact the Coordinator of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at cas@radford.edu or 540-831-6350.

Types of Accommodations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Types of Accommodations

Listed below are possible accommodations offered. Individuals will follow an interactive process to determine what accommodations are reasonable for a university setting. 

Interpreters

  • Students 
    American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters are to be requested through the CAS office as an accommodation for classes.
  • Staff/Guests
    Please fill out the Interpreting Services – Campus Event Request Form to request interpreters 10 business days in advance.  

Speech-to-Text Services
Enables users to operate applications and devices by voice through dictation. 

Captioned Media
All videos/audio are to have captions reasonably sized, with appropriate color contrast, in a visible location. 

Assistive Listening Systems
Devices used individually to amplify sound while filtering out background noise.

Captioning

Captioning, a textual representation of audio media, is an important accessibility tool for deaf people, as well as a benefit and learning tool for others. With so many avenues to obtain or create captioned media, ensuring that instructional materials are accessible is achievable.\

The National Deaf Association (NAD) has 3 main criteria that captions must comply with:

  1. Synchronized and appear at approximately the same time as the audio is delivered
  2. Equivalent and equal content of to that of audio, including speaker identification and sound effects
  3. Accessible and readily available to those who need or want them

Captioning Resources