As I was just getting the urge to start writing more about machine learning and theory of computation, I had this nagging thought:

Is there a useful compendium of advice for deaf students that discusses how to navigate through their undergraduate, and potentially graduate, experiences?

Here’s why I’m curious. I read advice aimed at computer science Ph.D. students all the time. One only has to browse websites of computer science professors and Ph.D. students who have blogs to find short advice articles such as how to manage your advisor. Also, guidance obviously isn’t limited to blogs. Computer science professors Michael Ernst (Washington) and Tao Xie (Illinois) have compiled quite a bunch of writings by themselves or others that may be of interest to computer science Ph.D. students.

So is there something similar for deaf students? By that, I’m referring mostly to American college and graduate students. Wouldn’t that be a great resource for younger students, so that they might read and understand how older students have survived (or failed) the journey?

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much advice out there, but there’s a chance I’m wrong. One of the problems when trying to search this is that if you type in “Advice for Deaf Students” in a search engine, most of the pages that show up are actually aimed at teachers, and provide tips and suggestions for working with and accommodating such students.

Keep in mind that I’m trying to look for sources similar to the ones that Professor Ernst or Professor Xie have on their homepages. Short essays by the random deaf person here and there are fine, but has anyone actually done a search for this and compiled a list together? If not, then I would be interested in starting one. I know I can’t do it all myself, since I start too many projects each year that I fail to finish, and general-purpose advice should rarely be written by just one person. It would be interesting to see if this idea could become a reality.