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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 needing accommodations with Deaf and Hard of Hearing services, please contact the Coordinator of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services by email or call 540-831-6350.

Types of Accommodations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

  • 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: Information for the Campus Community

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
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