Frequently Asked Questions

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Can the office of disability support services at a postsecondary institution cancel interpreting or speech-to-text services because of excessive student absences? Is it appropriate to continue to pay for services that are not being used?

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students have the same rights as their hearing peers, which includes the right to be absent from class. Interpreting and speech-to-text services should not be canceled due to student absences, but services may be temporarily suspended, according to clearly written policies, until a student completes specified tasks required to reinstate services. A postsecondary institution's attendance policies, or the attendance policy of an academic department or instructor, may be used as a guide to determine the service suspension policies of the office of disability services regarding interpreting and speech-to-text services.

The disability services office should review service provision policies with the student at the beginning of the semester or quarter; some schools require that the students sign the agreement. This agreement might specify the college's attendance policy and describe the circumstances, such as excessive absences, that would result in service suspension. The steps that a student must take to reinstate services should be defined in the agreement as well.

While it is not appropriate to discuss specific costs of interpreting and speech-to-text services with students, students should be aware that institutions have limited budgets and know they should be responsible for giving advanced notice of an absence whenever possible.

The PEPNet Product Dissemination Center (PDC) has resources for Disability Support Services including:
Handbook Templates; these downloadable files in MS Word contain separate handbook templates for students, parents, faculty, captionists, interpreters, and notetakers. These templates may be adapted for use at any postsecondary institution.

Also available through the PDC: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Responsibilities for Postsecondary Institutions Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students: Questions and Answers Book - 2nd Edition. Attendance issues are particularly addressed on pages 40 - 42.