Having a disability may impact many areas of a persons life.

The right to make

decisions about the future related to education, employment, and independent living is something
not often thought about in the non-disabled community because it is assumed a person will have
the right to choose what he wants to do with his life (Algozzine, Browder, Karvonen, Test, &
Wood, 2001). Until fairly recently, those with disabilities did not have laws protecting their
rights to make choices about their lives. Even after the passage of laws such as the Americans
with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1974, which were written to protect the rights
of these individuals, there is still a need for further education and advocacy on this topic. One
specific target area that has come into focus is self-determination (Algozzine et al, 2001;
Luckner & Muir, 2002; Luckner & Sebald, 2013). Self-determination is often defined as the
ability of a person to make decisions about major life choices and reach goals he set for himself
(Algozzine et al, 2001; Luckner & Muir, 2002; Luckner & Sebald, 2013). Self-determination
skills are important skills to have when transitioning from secondary school to either
employment or post-secondary education.
Teaching self-determination skills to people with various disabilities is common. One
group of individuals who benefit from learning these skills is those with hearing loss.
Unfortunately however, according to Luft and Huff (2011), 86.4% of deaf or hard of hearing
students are taught by teachers with no specific training for teaching students with hearing loss.
These teachers often do not know what students need to learn about their future or how to ensure
they develop the skills needed to succeed after high school. Even though laws such as the
Individuals With Disabilities Educational Improvement Act Amendments (IDEIA), and entities
such as the US Department of Education mandate discussion on post school outcomes, this topic
often does not get addressed enough because teachers are so focused on ensuring students


receive academic instruction that they pay little attention and devote little time to focusing on
transition outcomes. This is detrimental to deaf and hard of hearing students (Algozzine et al,
2001; Luft & Huff, 2011) because if they do not receive this instruction in school, they often will
not receive it elsewhere.
According to Algozzine et al (2001) there has been much research done on the concept of
self-determination but most of the research has not focused on what happens after adding self-
determination interventions. Whether or not these interventions have had a positive result on
students is not being studied as widely as it could be. Algozzines team of researchers (2001)
report that they found 450 articles that addressed the concept of self-determination across all
disability groups but most were not empirical studies. In addition, there are very few articles that
specifically address how self-determination interventions impact students who have hearing loss.
Reiman, Bullis, and Davis (1993) developed the Transition Competence Battery (TCB)
specifically designed for students who are deaf or hard of hearing and use sign language to
communicate. This assessment was developed to measure transition related skills in students
with hearing loss. The assessment is made up of six subparts: Job Seeking Skills, Work
Adjustment, Job Related Social Interpersonal Skills, Money Management, Health and Home, and
Community Awareness (Luft & Huff, 2011). Each question in the assessment is presented in
sign language so the target audience can easily understand the question being asked. While
many students were tested using this assessment, there were many drawbacks that eventually led
to the phasing out of its use. First, the test in its entirety took six hours to complete. Six hours
proved to be too long for use in the classroom. Teachers were not readily able to carve out that
amount of time for students to take the assessment. Second, this assessment was often given to a
group of students at the same time. Some students worked faster than others and this caused


some students to feel pressured to complete the assessment quicker and others to feel bored
because they were waiting for their peers. Due to these two main issues, a shorter version of the
test was created that would reduce the number of questions to 48 and take only 45 minutes to
complete. In addition, a computer based test was developed with an adaptive path for the learner
but the validity and reliability that existed in the original version was in question in this newer
version (Davis & Leonard, 2006).
In a research study by Luft and Huff (2011) the TCB was administered to fifty-three
middle and high school students with hearing loss from several different schools. Students took
the full version of the TCB assessment. The researchers focused on three questions:
1. Are public school-educated, transition-age deaf and hard of hearing students achieving
research-identified transition competencies? 2. What developmental differences
exist between middle school and high school-aged students in acquiring these transition
competencies? 3. What are areas of relative strength and weakness across the transition
competencies (Luft & Huff, 2011, pg. 572).
Of the fifty-three participants, not one student passed all subtests at the required score of 85%.
Their study found that students were not achieving transition competencies (research question 1),
there were differences between the middle and high school students who took the assessment,
but that the improved scores of the high school students over middle school students still
suggested a need for curriculum to address transition needs (research questions 2), and finally,
there were two common areas of weakness across all participants- money management and
health and home skills (research question 3) (Luft & Huff, 2011). The results of this study


indicate a need for curriculum designed for deaf and hard of hearing transition aged youth that
will target these areas.
At the time of this writing, pepnet 2 is about to launch a curriculum for deaf and hard of
hearing transition aged youth. This curriculum focuses on the major areas addressed in the TCB
and other areas indicated as important in research studies in the field of deaf education and
transition. This curriculum will be available Fall of 2015 and addresses topics such as self-
determination, self-advocacy, identity, disability disclosure, hard and soft skills, and independent
living ("Map It: What Comes Next," 2014). This curriculum will be marketed to schools across
the United States and is applicable to students aged 14-23. This curriculum consists of three
accessible online modules complete with American Sign Language videos, voice narration,
English captions, and downloadable transcripts (M. Morrison, 2014). Pepnet 2 is funded by the
US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, so the training is free for
any student who is deaf or hard of hearing.
According to Luckner and Sebald (2013), it is important for training to be broken down
into the following parts to make it easier for students to comprehend the concept of Self-
Determination: self-awareness/self-knowledge; choice/decision making; goal setting/attainment;
problem solving; self-regulation/self-management; and self-advocacy (Luckner & Sebald, 2013).
Following this documented research Map It: What Comes Next is divided into three sections.
Section 1: Who Am I addresses self-awareness/self-knowledge by teaching students about their
identity and hearing loss. It also provides information about strengths and weaknesses and how
to work to improve specific areas. Section 2: What Do I Want addresses choice/decision making,
goal setting/attainment, and problem-solving by teaching students to develop SMART goals,
take accountability for their choices, and how to manage roadblocks that prevent them from


achieving their goals. Section 3: How Do I Get There addresses self-regulation/self-management
and self-advocacy by addressing disclosure in the work place or post-secondary environment and
teaching students how to request accommodations afforded to them under the Americans With
Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (M. Morrison, 2014).
While there are some informal assessments built into the Map It training, there are no
formal standardized assessments at this time. The author of this paper believes the lack of
formal assessment is a missed opportunity to collect valuable pre and post data about how a
students self-determination and self-advocacy have changed after participating in the training.
There is not a lot of research on self-determination for deaf and hard of hearing student so this
would be a good opportunity to collect such data. The lack of formal assessments is not an
oversight from Pepnet 2but is due to the fact that assessments are typically normed on students
with normal hearing. Comparing students with hearing loss to those with normal hearing is often
ineffective because the groups are so different from one another. This is an area in need of
future development and any such assessment normed on students with a hearing loss would make
a valuable addition to Map It.
Overall, there have been a few studies on self-determination and transition for deaf and
hard of hearing students, but the author of this paper feels an experimental study using the Map It
curriculum from Pepnet 2 and a formal assessment named the Transition and Goal Generator
(TAGG) from the Zarrow Center would yield valuable research needed in this field.




Works Cited

Algozzine, B., Browder, D., Karvonen, M., Test, D. W., & Wood, W. M. (2001). Effects of
interventions to promote self-determination for individuals with disabilities. Review of
Educational Research, 71(2), 219-277.

Davis, C., & Leonard, A. (2006). A key to evaluation: The transition competence battery for
deaf adolescents and young adults. Odyssey, 8(1), 6-9.

Luft, P., & Huff, K. (2011). How prepared are transition-age deaf and hard of hearing
students for adult living? Results of the Transition Competence Battery. American Annals
of the Deaf, 155(5), 569-579.

Luckner, J. L., & Muir, S. (2002). Suggestions for helping students who are deaf succeed in
general education settings. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 24(1), 23-30

Luckner, J. L., & Sebald, A. M. (2013). Promoting self-determination of students who are
deaf or hard of hearing. American Annals of the Deaf, 158(5), 377-386.

Map It: What Comes Next [Advertisement]. (2014, April 3). Retrieved from www.pepnet.org

Morrison, M. (2014, May 13) Self-determination [Interview by H. Holmes]. Retrieved from
www.pepnet.org/map-it

Punch, R., Hyde, M., & Creed, P. A. (2004). Issues in the school-to-work transition of hard of
hearing adolescents. American Annals of the Deaf, 149(1), 28-38

Reiman, J., Bullis, M., & Davis, C. (1993). Transition competence battery for deaf and hard of
hearing adolescents and young adults. Santa Barbara, CA: James Stanfield.