Education is all about access to information.
The correct information can make a difference between a pass and a fail. Students who are deaf and hard of hearing have a particularly challenging experience accessing information. In our world, we naturally communicate through auditory means by default. And that can create barriers.
Kids have little guidance on what to do.
School is a complex environment for a student with hearing loss. It’s often the first time students are without their parent’s supervision to advocate their needs while independently learning and socializing in the school environment.
There is no playbook for managing hearing loss in these situations independently. School becomes a particularly unsettling, confusing, and unknown realm for a young person. Their parents aren’t around to know or see the conversations and experiences. Yet, without guidance, these students are expected to make minor and major decisions on how to act, what to say and how to behave. Yet, school is where a child spends most of their waking life.
Teachers are not taught how to teach deaf and hard of hearing students.
Every deaf and hard-of-hearing student will encounter a situation where learning becomes much more difficult. The reason could be that the teacher has an accent, the professors are more motivated by academic research than growing learners, the teaching style favours certain people, or the classroom culture makes it harder to hear or participate.
While most schools have disability offices to assist students with accommodations, they may not have a comprehensive view of assistive technology that could effectively assist students. Moreover, some professors know little about assistive technology for hearing impaired students in the classroom.
If you are a student with hearing loss who is taking matters into your own hands, or you are a parent with a newly deaf or hard of hearing child, or you are a teacher or school admin seeking to learn more, you are in the right place. I have investigated five technologies that could help students in and out of the classroom from day one. These assistive technologies won’t take long to request, purchase or get set up, as typically seen when asking for accommodations.
Classroom solutions for deaf and hard of hearing students.
1. Captioning
Having a note-taker in the class doesn’t allow you to follow along with the teacher and actively participate in the classroom. It’s hard to sit in a class when you aren’t stimulated. You will get bored quickly or doze off in front of the classroom and the teacher.
Sign language interpreters or professionally translated transcription / Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) may be an option. Yet, these professions are in high demand. The ratio for the number of deaf and hard of hearing students and the number of translation services available to the school alone (forget the workplace) are not one-to-one. Unfortunately, not everyone is privileged to have one. They’re expensive to hire, and a who-you-know kind of thing gets top preferences. Yet, every deaf and hard-of-hearing student or professional seeks these translators’ services.
Use a speech-text app as a backup
Hence, automatic captioning tools are the best way forward when all else fails. It is true that automatic captioning does poorly with words not used in everyday language. Especially when sine and cosine waves or angiomyogenesis are common languages used in your classroom. The text that appears on your automatic caption will be way off. Remember, they’re an option when you have nothing to fall back on.
Tools like WebCaptioner or a mobile app that transcribes speech to text may be a better option to follow the lecture or classroom teacher.
Captions can be a good alternative if you have to watch online videos without any subtitles available in advance.
Alternative to getting clarity of speech
Sometimes, the distance between the speaker and your mobile or computer microphone is too far apart for a good translation. Your professors may already use presentation software like Microsoft and Google Slides in these cases. Presentation software currently already has a built-in feature that provides automated captioning using the microphone from the presenter’s computer. Everyone in the classroom will benefit from the subtitles and can see while it’s projected on the screen.
2. Wireless microphone pairing
Suppose your professor’s teaching style is to give verbal diarrhea of their knowledge on a topic and it’s all in one direction, with little to no engagement with you and your classmates. In that case, the FM system or single microphone like the ones provided by the Phonak hearing aid brand will work.
You can sit and listen to your professor talk the whole time, and the speech goes directly into your ears.
The only downside is that if your classroom is very active and students are engaging in conversations in the classroom, it will be hard to hear others other than your professor unless the professor passes the FM system or microphone around.
FM systems can be
Similarly, some FM systems can be purchased under some hearing aid brands or through other adaptive technologies that connect to hearing aids and cochlear implants.
However, a quicker way is to get set up through an app like Jacoti. If your professor doesn’t mind turning their smartphone into a microphone while you listen through yours. You can listen to your classroom lecture as you listen to music or watch a video from your smartphone.
3. Video Recordings
Some people are great at learning by listening. I wouldn’t say that is my strength. Not everyone can simply listen and immediately recite new information with clarity right away.
If you absorb information at your own pace by writing down key points and reviewing your notes continuously. This strategy might be best for you to imprint the new information into your mind. You should embrace video recordings.
One hack to overcome this is recording your class using your video cam or computer. It will give you the option to review it later. Many software can help with recording, and some transcribe audio so that you have notes available immediately.
The school learning style has been the same for centuries. And we need new learning styles for people who learn differently. Video recording might be your hack to learning at your own pace.
Group projects, field & lab exercises with hearing peers
4. Digital amplified stethoscope
Medical students are often required to learn about human anatomy and are graded on their ability to capture the vitals as part of the medical training. No exceptions or accommodations are made to be a doctor, nurse or any health professional involving caring for the human body.
Thus, many stethoscopes are well amplified or can provide a visual reading that students can use to help them pass with good grades.
Interestingly, you can use these devices to hack other class projects requiring you to listen. Perhaps you have a physics project on sound waves, or your biology class requires you to listen to a species. Rather than passing the assignment off to your teammate, you can use these devices to participate and learn. You will better understand and follow along using the amplifier or available visual representation of the sound.
5. Apps for Group Conversation
When your professor assigns projects and group exercises where you need to interact with your peers, things get complicated. Unfortunately, social interactions in the classroom are the most complex problem for people with hearing loss, and assistive technologies for hard of hearing students are not always readily available to address these problems.
Yet apps for smartphones like HeardThat can provide ways to connect in noisy backgrounds if you cannot meet up in the quiet library and find it difficult to hear multiple people at once.
Final note
School is for personal growth and to help elevate you to new opportunities with your acquired skills.
However, an environment that doesn’t include hearing loss can make it harder for learning to happen. While advocating is one thing that can help, it might not help you go far.
If others aren’t sure how to help you or no one is stepping up to help, I hope the resources provided here will be a good starting point for you to see your options to get started tomorrow.