Communication access in the classroom

A hard-of-hearing student stopped going to class because he couldn't hear the professor, even while wearing hearing aids. He thought he could get by if he studied the assigned text. However, because the final exam covered additional material that had been given out during the semester, he failed the class.

Situations such as this are not unusual, but they are unfortunate because they can be prevented. There are strategies that both teacher and student can use to help a hard-of-hearing student participate fully in classroom activities.

In the last issue of this newsletter, we noted that the needs of hard-of-hearing students are often overlooked. Hard-of-hearing students appear to be coping well and they often don't make known their needs. With many more older students in the classroom now, these problems are intensified and increasingly on the minds of hard-of-hearing individuals who are evaluating a school's ability to meet their needs.

There are expenses associated with communication access, so an allocation should be included in the budget to ensure that the school can respond to requests for auxiliary aids and services, as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. For hard-of-hearing students these requests might include assistive listening devices, notetakers, oral or cued speech interpreters, and Computer-Assisted Real Time Transcription (CART).

Teachers can make it easier or harder for a student who is hard of hearing to function in the classroom depending on communication and teaching styles. Most important is the use of good communication techniques, which will benefit all students. As students who are hard of hearing rely on visual clues, especially being able to see the speaker's face to speechread, faculty should teach from the front of the room rather than pacing around, not speak while writing on the blackboard or looking down at notes, avoid eating or drinking while speaking, and keep beards and mustaches trimmed as they can affect a student's ability to speechread. Repeating or rephrasing questions from the class before responding to a student's question is also very helpful.

Other accommodations relate to various formats for getting information to the student accurately. Hard-of- hearing students do not get information through the grapevine as they cannot overhear conversations and may not easily be able to join their classmates in informal discussions during class breaks. Important information should be provided as much as possible in written form, either handouts, e.g., course syllabus, lesson plan, copy of teacher's notes, dates, times and places of tests, or written announcements put up on the blackboard. Videos used in class should be captioned. If this is impossible, a transcript should be given to the students to read.

Faculty and staff need to be aware of the stress the hard-of-hearing student will likely experience. Getting set up with CART or an assistive listening device can be time consuming and frustrating. As discussed in our last article, disability services offices may focus on providing sign language interpreters, and as a result they may not have available assistive listening devices that are helpful for hard-of-hearing students.

The issue of financing these types of accommodations can be a barrier. If so, the student can get caught in the crossfire of administrative hassles, sometimes not having the accommodations in time for the beginning of the semester, sometimes not at all, and, as a result, having to attend some classes without any hearing help.

Setting up an accessible environment, from admissions to the classroom, will greatly facilitate students who are hard of hearing being able to participate comfortably and therefore increase their opportunity for educational success. This is their right and the responsibility of the educational institution.