Teaching Students Who Are Hard of Hearing

• Do not drink or chew gum while lecturing.
• Do not stand or sit in front of a window where shadows will impede speechreading.
• Beards and mustaches make speechreading harder. Keep them trimmed.
• Discuss concerns about the student's ability to hear privately, not in front of the whole class.
• Encourage open communication from a student with hearing loss about your teaching style.

2. Provide Classroom Services

• Provide handouts such as syllabus, lesson plans, and assignments.
• Write announcements and assignments on the blackboard.
• Write proper names, technical vocabulary, formulas, equations, and foreign terms on the blackboard.
• Always use captioned films/videos or provide a written manuscript.
• Help find seating near the front if requested by the student.
• Arrange for a written instead of oral test.
• Be aware of and know how to use assistive listening devices.
• Be familiar with oral, sign, and cued-speech interpreters and how to work with them in class.
• Provide copies of your class notes if a notetaker is not available.
• Be familiar with computer-assisted real-time transcription (CART).
• Support the student in advocating for communication access.

For more information, contact:
Northeast Technical Assistance Center

Rochester Institute of Technology
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
52 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623-5604

585-475-6433 (V/TTY)
585-475-7660 (Fax)
Email: netac@rit.edu
WWW: http://netac.rit.edu

This NETAC Teacher Tipsheet was prepared by Brenda Battat, Deputy Executive Director, Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland.

This publication was developed in 1998 under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and produced through a cooperative agreement between RIT and OSERS (H078A60004). The contents herein do not necessarily represent the Department of Education's policy nor endorsement by the Federal Government.