Gallaudet University’s Student Health Service: Where Communication Is Care

By Dr. James Huang

At Gallaudet University, healthcare is more than treating illness. Gallaudet’s Student Health Service (SHS) is about ensuring every student is seen, heard, and understood. As the world’s only liberal arts university for Deaf and hard of hearing students, Gallaudet’s Student Health Service (SHS) delivers a model of accessible, inclusive care that sets a standard for student health centers and even medical centers to follow.

Composed of professionals who reflect the diversity of the community they serve, the SHS staff includes a family medicine physician who is both hard of hearing and a Child of Deaf Adults (coda), a hearing family nurse practitioner, two hearing registered nurses, one Deaf program specialist, and a hearing administrative support specialist. All members of the team are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), ensuring that patients receive care in their preferred language.

Primarily serving students, SHS offers both urgent and primary care on campus. Faculty and staff may visit the Student Health Center for triage in emergencies or for routine services like blood pressure checks. Every interaction at SHS centers around one core principle: barrier-free communication. In contrast to many healthcare environments, where Deaf and hard of hearing patients may encounter significant communication hurdles, SHS is designed to remove those barriers and make communication accessible. Medical services are offered in ASL, spoken English, and SimCom (simultaneous communication). The SHS at Gallaudet University provides access to Certified Deaf Interpreters and Protactile interpreters upon request, further ensuring that each individual’s communication preferences are respected and accommodated.

What makes SHS truly unique is its philosophy that deafness is not a limitation, rather, a shared cultural and linguistic identity to be celebrated. Communication in ASL fosters an immediate sense of connection and trust between providers and patients, transforming healthcare from a transactional service into a culturally affirming experience, especially for students who may have felt marginalized in medical settings outside of Gallaudet’s SHS.

Transparent face masks, such as The Communicator™ Clear Face Mask, are readily available at SHS for any patient who seeks to maintain both safety and full facial access during their visit. Dr. Anne McIntosh and her team at Safe’N’Clear are extremely honored to serve Gallaudet’s SHS with their clear window mask needs. We hope that Deaf or hard of hearing students utilizing the Gallaudet SHS will begin to see potential career opportunities and consider entering healthcare and science fields where mask use is common, such as medicine, dentistry, or veterinary science. We remain dedicated to supporting those who choose these career paths, and our commitment includes offering accessible protective face coverings that promote visual communication, like Safe’N’Clear’s The Communicator™ mask.

Gallaudet’s Student Health Service exemplifies how healthcare can—and should—adapt to meet the needs of every patient. Safe’N’Clear proudly supports organizations like SHS, where communication access is not only accommodated but fully embraced as a critical component of healing and well-being. Gallaudet’s Student Health Service stands as a powerful example of how inclusive practices can transform healthcare delivery.