Free public lecture: "The Accessibility Mindset: Building Pathways to Success for All Students”
- Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025, 530-7p.m.
- Location: Journalism 360, 242 W. 18th Ave. Columbus, OH 43210
- Parking: Tuttle Garage, 2050 Tuttle Park Pl. Columbus, OH 43210
Stephanie Cawthon is an expert on inclusion of deaf & disabled students in higher education, founding director of National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes, and author of Disability is Human.
American Sign Language Elementary-Level Teaching Certification
New for Spring 2026!! Application deadline: Dec. 1st
Ohio State’s 100% online American Sign Language (ASL) Elementary-Level Teaching Certificate prepares fluent signers and current instructors to teach at the community or college level. Taught fully in ASL, the program combines formal study and hands-on training in linguistics, intercultural competence, and effective teaching methods. Graduates gain practical experience, career insights, and access to Ohio State’s resources to meet the growing demand for skilled ASL educators. Note: this certificate does not lead to ASLTA certification or teaching licensure
Why choose Ohio State's ASL Elementary-Level Teaching Certificate?
World class faculty: Courses are taught in ASL by faculty with extensive teaching experience in one of the nation’s largest university-level ASL programs, serving approximately 1,500 students per semester in a program that offers general education courses, a minor, and a forthcoming major.
Top-ranked education: Ohio State, ranked #15 among public universities, is a leader in higher education. Earning a certificate opens doors to new opportunities and a powerful professional network.
Career-focused learning: With no residency requirement, you can earn your certificate from anywhere. Take one course at a time while balancing your personal and professional commitments and complete the entire program in less than a year. This program also includes a unique course to equip you with the tools to successfully obtain and retain employment in academic settings.
Click here for more information!
Center for ASL and Deaf Equity Leadership Team
Octavian Robinson (he/him)
Octavian Robinson is associate professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University and Director of the Center for American Sign Language and Deaf Equity. He earned his Ph.D. in history from The Ohio State University with fields in women’s, gender, and sexuality, African-American, and modern U.S.
Trained as a historian, his interdisciplinary work is situated in disability studies and explores a wide range of topics from linguistic exclusion in the historical archives to explorations of deaf onto-epistemologies through queer theory. His work highlights respectability politics, linguistic protectionism, and lateral ableism in deaf community spaces in the United States.
He is co-author of the original crip linguistics manifesto with Jon Henner. He identifies as deafdisabled; he is a proud graduate of the California School for the Deaf Riverside and Gallaudet University (B.A. 2002, M.A. 2004).
Kristin N. Wickham-Saxon (she/her)
Kristin Wickham-Saxon is Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Director of Undergraduate Studies in The Ohio State University ASL Program and serves as Assistant Director of the Center for American Sign Language and Deaf Equity. Kristin’s introduction to sign language began with a desire to communicate with her Deaf cousin.
After earning her master’s in Deaf Education from OSU, she enjoyed a decade-long career teaching deaf and hard of hearing high school students in central Ohio prior to teaching ASL at both the high school and college-level. Her teaching centers on innovative pedagogy, distance education, and mentoring.
She currently serves the ASL Instructors Network as the ASL Teaching Proficiency Coordinator and holds Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf National Interpreter Certification, with experience in community and video relay interpreting.