This issue of Odyssey will focus on how deaf and hard of hearing students with disabilities—physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual, social-emotional, and/or developmental—are provided with equitable access to education. Articles will explore how parents and caregivers, teachers, audiologists, administrators, and others ensure these students have the resources, supports, and services necessary to fully participate and succeed in both school and the community from birth to adulthood.

Thirty to 40 percent of deaf and hard of hearing children have some form of disability. These disabilities range from mild to severe. These children, sometimes referred to as “deafdisabled,” “deaf with disability,” or Deaf plus,” have the same rights to education as their nondisabled peers—and they have the same needs as all children. Historically, children with disabilities were too often thought of only in terms of their disability. Today, many practitioners manage the disability, and its accommodation, as they keep focus on student learning and the child’s social-emotional development. No longer are students with disabilities seen simply as students that need “fixing.” Instead, attention is on the dysfunction in the environment that prevents students from accessing the free and appropriate education to which they are entitled.

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