Getting Ready for College Before Fall Arrives

A guide for neurodivergent and Deaf or Hard of Hearing students — and the families walking alongside them

Hey — whether you're the one packing up for campus this fall or the parent stress-eating snacks at the kitchen table while your kid pretends everything is fine: you're in the right place. 👋

The fact that you're thinking about this now, while summer is still in full swing, already puts you ahead of a lot of people. Pat yourself on the back. Seriously.

But let's be real — "getting ready for college" is just a polite way of saying "do approximately 400 things while also trying to enjoy your summer." Deadlines, essays, accommodations paperwork, orientation sign-ups... it's a lot. And for neurodivergent and Deaf or Hard of Hearing students, the to-do list has a few extra pages nobody warned you about. Sound familiar?

Fall feels far away in July. But application deadlines, orientation dates, and move-in weekends arrive fast. None of what's below makes the process effortless. But it can make it more manageable — a way to feel a little more ready, and a little less alone in figuring it out.

Jump to a section:

• 🧩 When Deaf and Neurodivergent Overlap

• 🗂️ Before the Applications Go Out

• ✅ Knowing What "Ready" Actually Looks Like

• 🎓 Surviving — and Actually Thriving — Once Classes Start

• 🚪 Access Doesn't End at the Classroom Door

• ❓ Questions Worth Asking Colleges

• 💛 One Last Thing

Here's what that path looks like, in order:

🧩 When Deaf and Neurodivergent Overlap

Here's a stat that surprises a lot of people: nearly half of Deaf college students also have another disability, according to the National Deaf Center — and some of those are attention-related. Being Deaf and ADHD, or Deaf and autistic, or Deaf and dyslexic, isn't rare. It's actually pretty common. And it means the college search needs to include an extra question: does this school know how to handle more than one thing at once?

Colleges that do it well tend to share a few traits: a disability office with real experience across layered needs (not just a checklist), and sometimes a dedicated program for students navigating multiple differences — a summer bridge program, a peer mentor who gets it, a coordinator who won't make you explain yourself from scratch every semester.

That's not too much to ask. In fact, it's exactly the kind of question the OUL community was built around: you deserve support that sees all of you, not just the part that's easiest to accommodate.

🗂️ Before the Applications Go Out

Here's the dirty secret about college applications: the hardest part isn't the essays. It's keeping track of everything. ADDitude's college application guide for neurodivergent students has one golden rule — build a tracking system before the chaos starts, not while you're already drowning in it.

Your system can be anything: a wall calendar, a shared Google doc, an elaborate color-coded spreadsheet, sticky notes covering every surface in your bedroom. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to work. Pro tip: set every deadline one week earlier than the actual date. Future You will send Present You a fruit basket.

Also: break those essays into tiny steps. "Outline" → "messy first draft" → "ask someone to read it" → "actually revise it" → "done." That is a thousand times more doable than staring at a blank doc labeled Write Essay.

If you're Deaf or Hard of Hearing, don't wait until after the acceptance letter arrives to think about accommodations. Do that research now, during the school-shopping phase. Some schools have robust Deaf and HoH services baked right in. Others are basically starting from scratch. You deserve to know which is which before you commit.

✅ Knowing What "Ready" Actually Looks Like

Spoiler: there's no magical moment when a student suddenly feels ready. College readiness isn't a vibe — it's a set of skills you can actually check off.

ADDitude's college readiness checklist (free download!) breaks it into real categories: self-awareness, schoolwork skills, executive function, and daily living — like, can this person wake themselves up without a parent standing in the doorway? None of these are pass/fail. They're conversation starters. "You're great at this. You're still working on that. Here's how we practice before September."

This matters even more if you're Deaf or Hard of Hearing — add language access to that conversation. In K–12, interpreters, Teachers of the Deaf, and captioning may have just... appeared. College is different. None of that shows up automatically — it has to be requested, in advance, from the right office. Being ready means knowing who to call and when to call them. That knowledge? Also a skill worth practicing now.

🎓 Surviving — and Actually Thriving — Once Classes Start

Okay, you made it. Campus move-in happened. The mini fridge is running. Now what?

ADDitude's college survival guide for teens with ADHD has one tip that beats all the others: walk into the disabilities office on Day One. Not after the first bad exam. Not after three weeks of struggle. Day. One. That office is the key to early class registration, extended time, reduced distraction testing environments — basically, the entire toolkit.

A few other moves that make a difference:

• Read the syllabus before the first class. Yep, actually read it.

• Check the add/drop period — it exists for a reason, and using it is not quitting.

• Study in blocks of two hours or less. Timer on. Short break. Repeat. Your brain will thank you.

This matters even more if you're Deaf or Hard of Hearing — the disabilities office isn't just helpful, it's essential. Interpreters, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), loop systems: they all flow through that office. So does the fix when something goes wrong (and sometimes things go wrong). Knowing who to call at 8 a.m. when your interpreter doesn't show up for a 9 a.m. exam? That's not paranoia. That's preparation.

🚪 Access Doesn't End at the Classroom Door

Here's something colleges don't put in the brochure: they often do a decent job with accessibility in the classroom and a pretty rough job with everything else. The dorm floor meeting. The dining hall. The club fair. That late-night conversation in someone's room where everyone's laughing and you have no idea why.

A Deaf college student wrote about exactly this gap for the National Deaf Center. Her classes? Great support. Her social and dorm life? Cricket sounds. Her takeaway: don't wait for a problem to introduce yourself. She found her RA on move-in day and said, "Hey, here's what I need." She treats accessibility not as a form she filled out once over the summer, but as an ongoing, proactive project.

❓ Questions Worth Asking Colleges

Not sure what to ask during a campus visit or an email to admissions? No pressure — here's a starter list. Feel free to steal all of it.

For any student:

• How early do I need to register with the disabilities office to have accommodations in place for the first day of class?

• Is early course registration available through the disabilities office?

• What happens if an accommodation isn't working or a provider doesn't show up?

For Deaf and Hard of Hearing students:

• What interpreter and CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) services do you provide, and how far in advance do I need to request them?

• Are interpreters available for events outside of class— such as club meetings, orientation, and campus events?

• Does the campus have hearing loops or assistive listening systems in lecture halls and common spaces?

• Who do I contact when something goes wrong with my access support?

For neurodivergent students:

• Do you offer extended time, low-distraction testing, or note-taking support — and how do I access those?

• Is there a learning specialist or academic coach available through the disabilities office?

• Do you have a summer bridge program or first-year transition support for students with learning differences?

For students who are both:

• Does your disabilities office have experience supporting students with layered needs — for example, someone who is both Deaf and has ADHD?

• Is there a single point of contact who can coordinate across multiple accommodations, or do I work with different offices separately?

💛 One Last Thing

None of this makes fall arrive any less fast. But here's the thing about small, deliberate steps: they compound. The tracking system you build in July. The disabilities office visit on Day One. The RA conversation during move-in. None of it is dramatic. All of it matters.

And if you need a reminder that timelines don't have to look a certain way to be real — Russell Lehmann left school before he ever reached high school. It took fifteen years and three tries to find his way back into a classroom. Today, as USA Today reports, he teaches a course on neurodiversity at UCLA.

His path wasn't the "right" one. It was his one. And it got him somewhere real.

If this fall doesn't go the way it was pictured — that doesn't mean it isn't working. It might just mean the story isn't done yet.

That's what the OUL community is here for. Not to make the path look a certain way. Just to make sure you don't have to walk it alone.