Karolin Schäfer is a speech and language therapist specialising in education of people who are deaf or hard of hearing and Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

After studying rehabilitation sciences, she first worked in several clinical and speech therapy practices in Germany with children and adults with hearing loss or complex disabilities.

Since 2017, she has been a junior professor at the University of Cologne, Germany. Her work and research focuses on communication and speech development in people with disabilities.