Students with Disabilities

Applicants with disabilities are encouraged to notify the International Programs Office of their disability at the time of application, so that adequate accommodations of the disability can be considered. Official documentation of the disability (for example: medical diagnosis, doctor reports, etc...) will be needed to provide reasonable support services.

If you are a student with a disability, having an understanding of what services or technology works best for you is very helpful. It will help us provide you with the most appropriate accommodation to support your access to college. After you receive your student visa, you can contact the Accessibility Resource or Disability Services Center at your campus to begin a conversation about support services for your disability.

Deaf Applicants

Seattle Colleges provides Sign Language interpreters for Deaf students. Therefore, your success will depend on your knowledge of American Sign Language and your ability to use Sign Language interpreters.

For those looking to learn both English and American Sign Language, we can recommend several schools that have programs designed to teach both languages along with Deaf culture. Some schools use a visual-spatial approach to ESL in a bilingual setting to assist students with learning more than one language at a time. In addition, these schools have a larger population of Deaf students, which allows opportunities for more social interaction where American Sign Language is conversantly used.

Deaf centers designed to meet the academic needs of international Deaf students include:

Gallaudet University, in Washington DC
Ohlone College, in Fremont California
National Technical Institute for the Deaf - RIT, in Rochester New York
California State University Northridge, in Northridge California