Deafness/ Hearing Impairment

Incidence:

The HESA data from 2016/17 shows that 5,160 UK domiciled students registered at UK universities were deaf or had a serious hearing impairment; this makes up 0.28% of the student body.[1]

 

Characteristics:

Deaf culture

There is a strong Deaf culture and cohesion born out of the use of a common language. Richardson, Long and Foster (2004) state that “many deaf people see themselves as members of a distinct cultural and linguistic group and not as disabled”. In fact many people in the Deaf community do not want a ‘cure’ and view attempts to find one as an attack on the rich Deaf culture; trying to ‘cure’ deafness can be seen as equivalent to trying to ‘cure’ ethnicity.

People Deaf from birth (prelingual hearing loss) are likely to have learned to communicate first using sign language. Sign language is a distinct means of communication that involves gestures, facial expressions, body movements as well as hand signs; it is more different from English than is French, for example, as it not taught in a written form. While British Sign Language (BSL) does use English words and spelling it has different grammar and structure. For these reasons students who are Deaf will, in effect, have written English as a second language.

Many Deaf people dislike the term hearing-impaired and refer to themselves as Deaf (with a capital D).

 

Impact on teaching and learning:

Richardson et al. (2004) in a study of Open University students, found that students with hearing loss, who enter higher education, are likely to find communication the primary barrier to success rather than the academic demands of their course. In particular, there was a significant difference in the questionnaire scores measuring the students’ communication with, and learning from, other students. Students with a greater degree of hearing loss had greater difficulties in communicating with other students while students who had developed hearing loss later in life were less likely to learn from other students but scored higher on student autonomy measures indicating that they were more self-reliant.

These communication barriers are reduced when students are taught by distance learning.  This study’s sample did not include students whose preferred means of communication was sign language, however, they hypothesised that students who sign would still be disadvantaged in distance learning environment because they would be taught and assessed in their second language.

 

Teaching practice

In our questionnaire we asked students ‘What could teaching staff do that could make hearing in class easier for you?’

Student quote:

‘greater awareness about how the [following] can affect me. Also, repeat anything that anyone not wearing my radio aid (e.g. other student) says, as I am less likely to hear if they are not wearing my radio aid.’

  • Ambient noise can prevent me from hearing spoken language well
  • Staff and students need to face me so that I can lip-read
  • Teaching staff need to use microphones
  • I can hear best if I sit in a particular part of the room
  • Electronic equipment in rooms can interfere with my hearing aids

 

Staff should always wear a microphone where one is available, as this will enable sound to be recorded on Recap and transmitted via the induction loop system to students’ hearing aids. Some students will need staff to wear specific microphones, which the student will provide, as they are linked directly to their hearing aid.

In environments where both teaching staff and students speak it is necessary to either provide students with microphones or repeat what students have said in order to ensure that the whole class can hear the student contribution.

 

Lip reading

Students who are able to lip read may wish to sit in a particular part of the lecture theatre or tutorial room where they have the best unobstructed view of the staff member teaching. In a tutorial or seminar a student who lip reads will need to sit in a position where they can see the faces of both staff and other students.

 

Hearing aids

Students who use hearing aids or have cochlear implants may also have preferred places to sit in a class so that they can get the best sound reception and avoid interference from electrical items such as phones and PCs.

Many Hearing aids work by simply amplifying all sounds, unlike our brains which can filter-out background noise and allow us to focus on speech. This means that any ambient noise such as background chatter, music or sound effects in videos can limit a student’s ability to hear speech clearly.

 

Sign language interpretation

If there is going to be sign-language interpreter in the class it is a good idea to arrange to meet the interpreter and the student prior to the beginning of teaching. The student is likely to have agreed with the interpreter how the interpretation going to take place, for example they may want the interpreter to relay the meaning of what is said, rather than a word for word literal translation, for most of material that they cover but may want interpreter to provide a verbatim translation of technical parts of the class in some cases the interpreter may need to finger spell subject specific terms and names. Prior to the class beginning it would help the interpreter if you are able to discuss the material you going to cover so they are aware that any subject specific technical terms that you going to use or they may require you to provide your slides well in advance.

 

Impact on assessment

Students who are prelingually deaf[2] will have BSL (British Sign Language) as their first language and so their written work should be marked as if they were a non-native speaker of English. Students who lost their hearing after the acquisition of language (postvocationally deaf) are unlikely to use BSL and may use a combination of hearing aids and lip reading, but are likely to have high levels of written and spoken English. Both groups will need to have any audio material transcribed or subtitled.

 

Strengths:

Richardson (2004) found that students with hearing loss demonstrated higher levels of motivation to learn and self-reliance, although this might be a consequence of the hearing impaired students being older than the non-impaired students in their sample.

 

 

 

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References

[1] https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-15.csv

[2] People who are ‘prelingually deaf’ were either born deaf or lost their hearing as a young child, before the acquisition of language.