By Claire Holland
Accommodations
for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: We’re going to College!
Abstract
Accommodations for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: We’re going to
College! is to inform everyone that we can go to college, and how we
will need help along the way. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH)
may use anything from technology to just simply moving where they
sit in the lecture hall. As a HH student who will be going to
college in the fall of 2015, this paper will explain my plans for
accommodations that I hope to put into action when I start college.
Accommodations
for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: We’re going to College!
As a
HH student in high school who has struggled to get accommodations
met by hearing teachers, I one day hope and pray that when I’m in
college, everything will be easier for me. I have teachers who do
not give me notes, and if they do it is well after the lecture and
two days before the exam. I also have teachers who will “forget” to
put closed captioning (CC) on videos or the videos are so old they
don’t even have CC! Even if a video did have CC, the teacher will
always tells me to remind them before the video starts so they can
enable the captions. Who wants to be that kid to point out
their disability for the millionth time in front of the class
because the teacher can’t remember CC? Not me. Then there is the
teacher that talks softly when the whole class is rowdy and that is
the one time she says that we have a test next Friday. You go to
class next Friday and yes, there are a few knuckleheads that were
not prepared because they were talking to their friends, but then
you’re not prepared because you didn’t hear the teacher say
anything about the test and she never wrote it down for you to see
visually. Of course she’s going to say “I guess you should’ve paid
attention and listened.”
I
have been granted a great opportunity to take a dual credit class
for which I will receive credit on my high school transcript and
college transcript. Since it is a college class, I was able to get
accommodations from the Student Disability Service (SDS) office at
Western Kentucky University, WKU. A notetaker sits by me and types
everything that the professor says and what is on the PowerPoint.
Everything that the notetaker types comes up on the computer screen
I can easily see it from my seat. She revises and edits the notes --
because she types fast and makes typos-- and e-mails me the revised
notes. My notetaker has helped me so much, because I can really
focus on what the professor is saying, instead of writing notes. I
always look back on my notes and see when I have missed important
information, such as a test next Friday. If I could get this
accommodation for every class in college, my life will be easier. I
will not have to listen as hard and receive the most accurate notes.
When
I was younger, I always struggled with the TV. I couldn’t
understand cartoons, and I didn’t quite understand how to read lips
yet. When I first started reading, I loved it. Picture books had
all the details in the pictures, but not with the words, and I
wanted more. So I started reading higher level books. These higher
level books gave more details that I have missed a lot throughout my
childhood when watching TV. and I wanted that back. My parents
found a way to put CC on the TV and I absolutely loved it. It was
difficult at first, reading then looking at the screen, but I did
get use to it. Even both of my hearing parents love it for
themselves! But the problem can be when teachers don’t turn
captions on during educational videos or movies. They say they
don’t know how or that it has a curse word in it. Pardon me, but if
you don’t want me seeing the curse word, should the others be
hearing the curse word? I always have problems with CC
because most teachers give worksheets to do during a video, or a pop
quiz after the video. I always have mine blank if there are no CC.
Teachers need to understand that you can make it as loud as you
want, but I’m still not going to understand the video unless there
is CC.
One
of my biggest problems throughout high school has been missing/late
assignments. I think about 85% of that issue is because teachers do
not write down assignments, test dates, and other important
information. A teacher does not know how much easier life is for me
when they give me a schedule for the week. I can easily follow up
with homework and not have to listen for homework numbers in Math,
which chapters to read in English, what day the lab is in Science,
and when we get to work on our project in class in History. It
might seem silly, but being HH and listening all day wears a person
out! A syllabus would be easy to keep up with and there are no
questions about it. Plus it can benefit the whole class as well!
In
conclusion, these are some of my favorite accommodations that I have
always used and felt comfortable with. I plan on using these in
college plus others, like a hearing dog to help me be aware of my
surroundings on campus and maybe an FM system. Accommodations are
different for everyone (even if they have the same disabilities) and
the accommodations may change over time if you find something new
that you like.
Bibliography:
Guide: Federal Communication Commision
. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2014, from FCC: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/closed-captioning
Hearing Dogs: Dogs for the Deaf. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21,
2014, from Dogs for the Deaf: http://www.dogsforthedeaf.org/hearing-dogs
WKU: Student Disability Services. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21,
2014, from WKU: http://www.wku.edu/sds/
Also see:
Public Education for Deaf and
Hard of Hearing Students
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