Creating a more inclusive classroom environment starts with educating instructors about the needs of their students. Once those needs are understood, work to address them may not only benefit the small group of students for whom the intervention was intended, but the wider class too.

For the last 20 years, I have been teaching organic chemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology, a university that includes the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. As such, my class of 150 students in organic chemistry will typically include 2–10 deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students. When I was just starting my career in academia, the university offered a brief orientation about Deaf culture and what to expect in the classroom. At the time, I was so consumed with nervousness and overwhelmed by my new role as a tenure-track faculty member that I barely absorbed the information. I was having to plan lectures and write exams for the first time, and was worried about explaining concepts effectively and avoiding misinforming the students. In short, it was all about surviving during the first few years. Besides, I had sign language interpreters at the front of the class, so I simply assumed the D/HH students were fine.