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Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Postsecondary Education
NCES 94394
March 1994

Provision of Support Services

Respondents were asked whether their institutions had provided support services designed for deaf and hard of hearing students to any such students in the last 4 academic years (1989-90 through 1992-93), and if so, how many such students had been served in each of the 4 academic years. Respondents were instructed to report deaf students separately from hard of hearing students if possible. If it was not possible to report deaf and hard of hearing students separately, they were asked to report these students together in a combined category.

The survey asks about the number of students to whom the institutions provided services, and not about the number of students who requested services. While information about service requests would be useful, preliminary work on the survey indicated that institutions do not keep records about service requests, but only about service delivery. Thus, it is not possible to ascertain from these data whether deaf and hard of hearing students had requested services that were not provided.

Percentage of Institutions Providing Support Services

About a third of the nation's 5,000 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions provided special support services designed for deaf and hard of hearing students to such students in any (one or more) of the last 4 academic years (Table 6).8 This represents about 1,850 institutions. Public institutions were much more likely to provide support services than were private institutions (70 versus 19 percent). Most medium and large institutions provided such support services (89 and 96 percent respectively), compared with 21 percent of small institutions. The proportion of institutions providing support services designed for these students did not differ by institutional level (2-year or 4-year) or region of the country in which the institution was located. This pattern by institutional characteristics for service provision is similar to the pattern for enrollment of these students.

About three-quarters of the institutions that enrolled any students who identified themselves to the institution as deaf or hard of hearing in 1989- 90 through 1992-93 reported providing support services to deaf or hard of hearing students during those years (Table 6). Public institutions were more likely to provide services than were private institutions, and medium and large institutions were more likely to provide services than were small institutions. The proportion of institutions providing support services was not significantly different by institutional level or region.

A quarter of the nation's 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions provided support services designed for students who are deaf or hard of hearing to such students in 1989-90 (Figure 3). By 1992-93, a third of the institutions provided these support services, a significant increase from 1989-90. About four-fifths of the institutions that enrolled deaf and hard of hearing students provided support services to such students in each of the 4 academic years.

Number of Students Served

In late 1992-93, 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions provided special support services designed for deaf and hard of hearing students to 16,100 students (Table 7), an increase of approximately 3,000 students served since 1989-90. In 1992-93, support services were provided to 4,120 deaf students, 5,270 hard of hearing students, and 6,720 students whom the institutions did not distinguish as deaf or hard of hearing. An average of 9.8 deaf and hard of hearing students received support services at each institution that provided such services in 1992- 93 (not shown in tables).

In 1992-93, 2-year institutions and public institutions provided support services to more deaf and hard of hearing students than did 4-year institutions and private institutions (Table 8). Institutions in the West provided support services to more deaf and hard of hearing students than did institutions in any one of the other regions of the country. About half of the deaf and hard of hearing students that received support services (8,000 out of 16,100) attended large institutions. These patterns of differences by institutional characteristics have remained stable since 1989-90.

Percentage of Students Served

Eighty percent of the students who identified themselves to the institution as deaf or hard of hearing received special support services designed for such students in 1992-93 (Table 9).9 Most students reported as deaf (93 percent) received support services; 71 percent of students reported as hard of hearing and 88 percent of students whom the institutions did not distinguish as deaf or hard of hearing received support services. As reported by the institutions, the percentages of students receiving support services have remained fairly stable since 1989-90, and do not vary by institutional characteristics.


8An institution was considered to have provided support services if they made arrangements for these services, even if another agency paid for them. Vocational Rehabilitation is one common funding source for many of the services provided by institutions.

9Information about requests for services, in contrast to that about the provision of services, is not available. Thus, it is not possible to ascertain from these data whether the 20 percent of deaf and hard of hearing students who did not receive support services had requested that any services be provided.

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