University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program & Midwest Center for Postsecondary Outreach
Regional Educational Accommodation Consortium in Higher Ed (Project REACH)
Background Providing mandated accommodation services to students who are Deaf or hard of hearing (D/hh) has been a challenge faced by many postsecondary institutions in recent years. D/hh students attending these schools are increasingly becoming frustrated as they choose to attend institutions that meet their educational needs but find that the institutions do not have the capacity and expertise to provide needed disability accommodations. The challenge for some schools is that they may suddenly be faced with their first-ever deaf student. For other schools, the puzzle they face is the yearly wide fluctuations in their D/hh student numbers. This fluctuation can make it difficult for schools to predict just what the interpreting and captioning staffing needs will be from year to year. In response, some college and universities are starting to develop creative solutions for meeting this D/hh student accommodation challenge. One solution that is being explored by some schools is to share staff interpreter and captioner resources with other schools in their region. Such arrangements may simply entail two near-by schools sharing an interpreter/captioner hired by one of the schools or might be more involved with schools in one geographic region forming a service consortium. Providing interpreting and captioning services through small or large-scale collaborative arrangements can have many benefits to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The benefits of collaborative agreements between schools for the provision of D/hh accommodation services can include: (Note: the term “service-providing institution” is used to denote the original "home" hiring institution of the interpreter) Students have access to the school of their choice, not just access to schools that have D/hh services. Students have increased flexibility to take classes at the times convenient for the students, not just at when the services are available due to interpreter/captioner availability. Schools without any previous experience in providing D/hh services have access to staff with expertise in postsecondary D/hh service delivery. I.e. these interpreter/captioner professionals are knowledgeable about postsecondary issues, students, staff, and subject matter. Service-providing institutions can maximize their staff interpreting/captioning capacity. In a year when these institutions have a low D/hh student census, the school can retain its staff positions by subcontracting the staff’s services to other regional institutions. These subcontracting arrangements can allow an institutions to keep consistency of staff and avoid continual layoffs and rehiring. In cases of interpreter/captioner illness and emergency, there are available back-ups.
Students will also have increased access to campus activities because of a wider availability of interpreting and captioning professionals.
History of Project REACH In order to retain quality interpreting staff in when the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee’s (UWM) D/hh population decreased in recent years, the UWM D/HH Program implemented subcontracting agreements with other postsecondary institutions in the greater Milwaukee area. To date, UWM D/HH has subcontracted interpreting services to four different schools in the Milwaukee area. This subcontracting agreement allows the UWM program to send staff interpreters to other instructions on a fee-for-service basis. The funds recovered via these subcontracting agreements has allowed the UWM D/HH program to retain valuable staff while financially breaking even. The Midwest Center for Postsecondary Outreach Site at the UWM Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program is currently hosting a project to further the exploration of postsecondary deaf/hard of hearing service collaboration. This project, Project REACH, is currently working to develop a variety of models for Postsecondary D/HH accommodation collaborations. Postsecondary D/hh Resource Sharing: Some Tips Below outlines some of what the UWM D/HH Program has learned from four years of outsourcing interpreting services to postsecondary institutions in our region. 1. YOU CAN’T DO TOO MUCH PREPARATION BEFORE AN OUTSOURCING AGREEMENT IS ESTABLISHED. It is important that all of those stakeholders (including students and instructors!) meet and understand policies and responsibilities before any agreement begins. Policies need to be firmly established and written establishing: a. Who is responsible for overseeing other services: getting notetakers, getting tutors, taking care of last minute requests? It is important that there is an established system outlining who is coordinating related services, the institution of the consumer or the service-providing institution? b. Parking, prep time, travel time, purchase of prep materials. Who pays? c. Will services be reimbursed through hourly billing or will a flat fee charged? d. Interpreter illness or emergency: what is the plan? e. Student or client emergency: how do they notify interpreter? f. Suppose student/client has last minute short interpreting need after class, will the interpreter stay? Will the time be billed? 2. If it is a semester-long class, there needs to be a clear understanding of billing arrangement in case the class is cancelled. (At UWM, we have established a system of dividing the semester into four calendar periods and basing the billing charges for each of the four periods on the services in place at the beginning of each billing period. As a result, if a student drops a class in the middle of a billing period, our program is paid for the whole billing period). 3. Student needs to have a clear understanding of interpreter ethics and interpreter's role. Is the interpreter part of the educational team of the subcontracting institution thus making it appropriate for the interpreter to discuss confidential issues with that institution’s staff? How about other staff at the interpreter’s home school, how much can they know about the interpreter’s responsibilities at the other school? 4. Can the student/client arrange for future services directly with the interpreter or with a coordinator, what is the system?
5. If the student/client’s institution has no background in deafness, how much inservice information and support with the service-provider provide? (At UWM in-services to the subcontracting school’s staff are part of our arrangements and are provided at no charge). 6. If the student has a grievance about service, what do they do? 7. Make sure that the service providing institutions have full information about parking, campus maps, campus calendar, important campus policies, location of food-service, and it is useful for interpreters/captioners to know the location of a computer they can use during their down-time. The bottom line is… you need to think through all of the "could happen" scenarios and plan! For questions about project REACH or D/HH resource sharing, please contact: Ginny Chiaverina University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program 414-229-4549 (v) 414-229-4284 (tty) GinnyC@uwm.edu.