I don't know much about UT's grad school program. But I do know that Austin itself does have a huge deaf community there. Last year, I met 3 deaf students who were taking classes for their masters and PHD at UT Austin. They were extremely brilliant but they already graduated. One of them teaches at Ohio State Univ. and the other one teaches at Gally. There are alot of deaf residents in Austin - the chances of you meeting a deaf person in Austin is very very good since the deaf community is large. They also have what they call "DPHH Austin" (?? not sure if I got it right??). I've never been to their DPHH events but if I'm not mistaken, I think they have a website -- check out the dates and then you'll meet the deaf community at wherever they host the DPHH.