Graphic Communications: Rediscovering a Misunderstood Career Path

NTID has received a $66,000 grant from the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation to develop the initial phase of an interactive Website for deaf high-school students to promote graphic communication as a viable career path.

Principal investigator Dr. Thomas Raco, faculty member in NTID’s Arts & Imaging Studies (AIS) program, will lead the 3-year project, working with AIS Chair Dr. John Cox, AIS faculty member Jean-Guy Naud, and Counseling Services Chair Dr. Robb Adams, to create a site with information about careers in graphic communication.

“We have learned over the years that many deaf students in high school are not actively encouraged to consider graphic communication as a career option,” said Raco. “We also need to alter the misperception that jobs in the field dried up when the Linotype era, which provided jobs for many deaf people in previous generations, ended.”

The site will include an online inventory of career exploration materials, requirements for entry into Graphic Communication degree programs and employment, a process for students to develop an inventory of high-school preparatory courses, interactive and individual online advising, information about accessible postsecondary technical-education programs, career paths and mobility patterns, and links to key industry associations and companies.

Dateline: March 28, 2006