A Transition Community for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Engineering Programs

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students are underrepresented and less successful compared to their hearing counterparts in Engineering programs, as they tend to have less academic readiness. They also generally have lower ACT scores and lower content knowledge for introductory courses. DHH students face difficult adjustments in handling the demands and expectations of college level classes and specifically introductory mathematics courses. As a result, without appropriate support, most DHH students fail to succeed in introductory mathematics courses in their first year. For this group of underprepared students, a transitional community and transitional engineering course has been shown to significantly improve their academic success. This paper describes 1) how the establishment of a community of peers with an appropriate academic support structure improves graduation persistence, 2) how a transition engineering program with an appropriate support structure improves success in succeeding in engineering and 3) resources available for instructors who have DHH students in the classroom. Introduction Physical communication and learning is not wholly contained in a single communication modality, (i.e., sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell). Comprehensive meaning in communication is conveyed through the synthesis of information and associated meaning from each modality. The absence of one or more of the five senses not only impacts brain plasticity, it shapes the brain’s development and a person’s contextual knowledge of the world. Modern engineering activities such as labs, fieldwork, and design studios, demand a high level of visual and auditory function. For example, using a probe in electronics (Behm & Mondragon, 2014) involves multimodal activities that frequently engage multiple senses. Missing part of the multimodal communication causes both deaf or blind students to face accessibility and socialization issues. As a result, DHH students often face significant barriers in pursuing their educational goals, especially if they wish to pursue engineering careers. Transition communities can aid students who are deaf or hard of hearing adjust to new multimodal environments and enhance their ability to access classroom information. There were about 138,000 deaf and hard of hearing students in college nationwide in 2010 (Walter, 2010). State and federal efforts in support of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have enabled deaf students to attend the schools of their choice and obtain support. As a result, over the 38 years between 1972 and 2010, the percentage of deaf individuals attending college has increased by approximately 400%. The numbers of deaf students pursuing bachelor’s degrees continue to show disparities compared to the general population. In 2009, 60% of deaf high school graduates attended some form of postsecondary education. Of these students, 57% attended two-year schools as compared to 48% for hearing students. On the other hand, 33% of deaf students were pursuing baccalaureate degrees compared to 47% of hearing students. Moreover, DHH students have higher attrition rates (Walter, 2010), who found that hearing students have a 15% higher completion rate than their DHH peers. In addition, in comparison with their hearing peers, about 8% more DHH students never graduate from high school. This significantly impacts the pipeline, and as a result there is a far smaller fraction of DHH students who pursue graduate degrees. Between 1997-2006, 265,790 individuals received doctorates in science and engineering. Only 420 DHH individuals, or 0.2% of the total received doctorates in science and engineering (Hoffer, Hess, Welch, & Williams, 2007). Barriers in Engineering Classes Increased adoption and use of accessibility features not only increase inclusion in everyday life, they enhance social, legal and technical acceptance. DHH are likely to thrive and grow when paired with others who face similar issues, along with people seeking to provide support, rather than dealing with these challenges in isolation. The goal is not to merely increase inclusion for a few individuals, but to promote a more inclusive environment in which all can thrive and grow. Deafness is low incidence and deaf individuals are thinly dispersed. This has several subtle implications -for example, more than half of all deaf students have no classmates with similar challenges. Without appropriate support accommodations to facilitate inclusion by peers or to encourage interaction or group communication, they face participation barriers in informal social and formal learning communities. Deaf and hard of hearing students will benefit from knowledgeable teachers who understand how to adapt materials that assume visual relationships by recasting the materials in neutral terms. However, deaf and hard of hearing students are likely to face hindrances from non-disabled students who do not have incentives to understand and adapt. Since much learning is conveyed peer-to-peer, this can be a serious hindrance to knowledge acquisition and reduce their participation. This can also trigger their disillusionment with education and withdrawal from society. They are likely to thrive and grow when paired with others with whom they can identify and from whom they can find support. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students have varied educational backgrounds and face difficulties in obtaining access to knowledgeable sign language interpreters and captioners. Additionally, communication and attitudinal barriers can inhibit collaboration inside and outside the classroom. The transition from high school to college is a critical time because the student is moving from dependent to independent status. There are accompanying changes in the expectations of the educational institutions. For instance, students must self-advocate and do more work outside class. Knowledgeable mentors and peers who share similar experiences can help these students to develop academic, technical, and selfdetermination skills despite potential barriers of inaccessible curricula and resources, inadequate support, and a lack of encouragement and role models (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002). Regardless of this technology’s availability, DHH students benefit from the pooled experience and wisdom of a community of similar peers and knowledgeable mentors. It’s also worth noting that a community of peers is likely to have access to far more available resources than would a single person operating independently. Need for Transition Programs There are several reasons for the lower than expected percentage. Teachers and advisors are a vital resource for students in learning of career opportunities and directing their attention towards such goals. DHH students, starting in secondary school, are generally steered towards vocational or applied fields due to the belief they cannot succeed in more abstract fields. This belief is partly shaped by their delayed English and mathematics competency. Additionally, DHH students rarely can take engineering courses in high school and do not have access to information on the rigors and expectations in these majors. Many have simply never been exposed to the high level of problem solving skills needed for introductory courses for engineering majors. As a result, they are more likely to do poorly in an introductory engineering course or drop out of these programs. This failure to succeed presents not only a lost opportunity to pursue an engineering career, but perhaps a lost opportunity to complete their studies elsewhere. In addition, unemployed deaf adults usually obtain for tax-subsidized social security disability payments, in contrast to employed deaf adults who pay taxes. So, it doubly benefits society to increase DHH student enrollment and graduation rates. DHH students that pursue engineering or other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs, would likely have greater success (better grades, higher persistence and graduation rates) if they have better academic support and feedback to determine their readiness for engineering or STEM disciplines. They would be more equipped to manage course and workload expectations. TRANSITION COMMUNITY We investigated the impact of a transition community with both peer learning and academic support in terms of introductory course success.