More Deaf Students with Severe Disabilities

Printed in the Olathe News in December 2007

More Deaf Students with Severe Disabilities
By Leonard Hall

Across the country and Kansas, schools and programs for deaf children continue to be challenged in their efforts to meet the needs of those children with additional disabilities.

Some estimates indicate that as many as 40% of deaf students have disabilities in addition to deafness. These may include developmental delays, learning disabilities, sight impairments, autism, emotional and behavioral issues.

There are currently an estimated 72,000 deaf students enrolled in public schools in this country, with about 15 percent or 10,800 of them in state schools for the deaf. While expertise on deafness is more concentrated in state schools, they struggle along with their colleagues in public schools to obtain and/or develop the expertise needed to address the additional challenges of the multiply disabled child.

Schools and programs for the deaf have always provided services to deaf children with other disabilities at some level. The key factors have been the severity of the disability and the extent to which the student could benefit from visual communication.

There seems to be an increase in the number of deaf students with severe disabilities challenging school programs. Autistic children are an example of such a population.

I have interacted with several deaf students with different degrees of autism. This can be a severe cognitive disability. The deaf student with severe autism may or may not be able to partially understand me and my sign language. His ability to respond with voice or sign is limited.

An environment with sign language may not be the highest priority for deaf students with such severe cognitive disabilities.

There is a big debate as to whether state schools for the deaf should accept deaf students with moderate to profound disabilities who cannot communicate in sign language effectively or otherwise benefit from an environment in which sign language is the primary mode of communication.

However, until deaf children with severe disabilities, such as autism, are placed in a visually accessible environment, such as KSD, where they can learn sign language, we can’t be sure whether the student will adjust and improve.

A recent lawsuit in California has required the California School for the Deaf in Fremont to establish a special program for autistic students. Everyone will be watching this program to see how this program will work for autistic deaf students.

One major problem is the shortage of qualified teachers in deaf education as well as special education in general. Recently, Kansas University cut back on its master deaf education program and merged it with the special education program. There may be less teachers specializing in deaf education graduating in the near future.

It will continue to be a major challenge for state schools for the deaf and local deaf education programs to provide an appropriate and meaningful education for those deaf students with moderate to severe disability.
(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the Olathe News and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)