Part of a collection of papers commissioned by Foundations, a project designed to examine the career development needs of students entering the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, this paper considers the role of experiential learning. Section I reviews basic concepts, theories, and models underlying experiential learning. Experiential learning, as defined in this paper, refers to learning that has three primary characteristics: it is primarily self directed, inductive, and takes place outside the classroom. Confusion over the definition is cited, and models of learning (traditional and experiential) proposed by J. Coleman and D. Kolb are considered. The section concludes with a summary of advantages and disadvantages of experiential learning. Section II outlines a strategy for process learning and applies it specifically to career education with emphasis on the learning of transferable skills and knowledge. The final section addresses applications of experiential learning for hearing impaired students, stressing ways to accommodate strategies to the experiential deficiences of hearing impaired students. A model is proposed for diagnosing these deficiencies. (CL)