Challenges of Access for Hard of Hearing Students Ruth Warick, PhD, University of British Columbia

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Challenges of Access for Hard of Hearing
StudentsRuth Warick, PhD, University of British
Columbia

• Outline
• Introduction
• Exam accommodations
• Classroom captioning
• Assistive listening technology
• Other Issues

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Introduction

• Research undertaken with 14 university hoh
  students to understand impact of a hearing loss
  on their university experience.
• Used an interpretative research paradigm which
  emphasizes the importance of individual
  experiences as perceived by the participants
  themselves. Two interviews conducted with
  students and journal entries were kept by
  students.

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Introduction

• Students who are hard of hearing are low users of
  services (Killean Hubka, 1999 Menchel, 1996
  Warick, 1994a).

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Profile of Participants
Study involved 14 participants from 3
universities Gender No. Male 5
Female 9 Age 18-24 yrs. 6 25 yrs.
40 yrs. 6 41 yrs. 2 Marital Status
Single 11
Married/Common 3
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Participants Academic Profile
Program Status No. Undergraduate 11 Graduate
3 Program Speciality Education 5
Arts 5 Science 2 Commerce 1
Social Work 1
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Hearing Profile of Participants
Degree of Hearing Loss No. Mild 1 Moderate
1 Moderate/Severe 5 Moderate/Severe
Moderate/Profound 1 Moderate/Severe
Severe/Profound 1 Severe/Profound 4 Profound
1

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Exam accommodations Research
Only one student received exam time extension of
14 students in my study. Most typical
accommodation was for instructors or exam
invigilators to write down verbal exchanges
during exams. Some students had exemptions from
oral exams or differential marking if components
were missed due to hearing loss. Some students
had exemptions from participation marks.

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Exam accommodations Research
Example of marks being adjusted James The
entire question its changed because its like
they have made an error and the question doesnt
work any more and you were working through the
questions not knowing that they have made the
change. That has happened a few times.   Result
James spoke to his professor and marks were given
because his exam showed his work.

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Exam accommodations Research
Example of exam accommodation for French oral
exam Yvonne and the instructor had discussed the
teacher giving the exam to her separately,
one-to-one, but we both agreed that would be too
easy for me because it is not quite the same
because I would be reading her lips, not
listening for it. I would have an unfair
advantage over the other students. Result
Repetition when the instructor believed that the
student missed a word. Yvonne underlined where
she had missed a word and the instructor did not
mark her on the word.

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Exam accommodations Research
Marks were negotiated for participation.   Ben
successfully argued that his hearing loss
prevented him from being able to take part in
class discussions. However, it took four months
for the change to be made. Ben found that it was
a touchy situation.

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Exam accommodations Research
Not all students were successful obtaining or
requested exemptions. Gayle missed words on a
video which was part of her French exam. She
decided not to request re-consideration. Gayle
There are a lot of barriers within a bureaucratic
institution from wanting to, say, to do a re-test
for a French text. They would say Well, if I
give you a re-test that means that everybody has
to do a re-test. But, yet, they are not really
taking into account the differences of peoples
experiences.

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Exam accommodations Research
Example of student who received extended time.
Charlie received an additional 30 minutes to
check his understanding of the wording and
correct any mechanical writing errors.

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Exam accommodations Research
Example of student who was refused extended time.
Mark had extra time in high school but not
university and felt that he was at a
disadvantage. Mark It could be beneficial for
me to have an extra half-hour, especially in the
case where the Prof is from another country. It
may be helpful to have an extra half hour so if I
miss anything I then can sort of work around it
because sometimes its harder for me to make up
for whats missed during class. Sometimes, its
very difficult for me to know if I have missed
anything cause I dont know.

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Exam accommodations Research
A few students would have liked extra time. E.g.
Jennifer had not realized it may be
provided. Jennifer I have always been a good
student, participate well and do very well in my
assignments, but when it comes to exam time, I
have always dropped my grades drastically. Many
times I have instructors say, What happened?
Exams are a weakness for me. I feel like the time
pressure. I am not a speedy reader compared to my
colleagues. Other students did not feel they
required it. James refused additional time.
James No, I wrote same as everyone elseI am
glad I had. I have tried to be like everyone else.

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Exam accommodations Research
In my research, there were no examples cited
where the student received deductions for
literary style or consideration for grammatical
or spelling errors.

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Exam accommodations Research
Example of institutional criteria for extended
testing time for students with hearing
losses  Discussion The provision of extended
testing time recognizes that a hearing loss is
not just an absence of hearing but that it has a
cognitive impact.    Written language
development may be delayed as a result of not
having the same access as other students to
language at a formative stage, thus it takes the
student longer to write his or her thoughts and
the student requires time to review written
material to correct errors due to delayed
language development. Examples of common errors
are mixing of tenses, lack of verb/subject
agreement, incorrect punctuation and misspelling
of words.

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Exam accommodations Research

•  Reading may be slower as a result of delayed
  language development. As a result, the student
  takes longer to read written material.
•  
• Students with a hearing loss would usually
  exhibit the following profile to qualify for
  extended testing time
• born or lost hearing at an early age,
  particularly the years which are formative for
  language development
• have a moderate-severe or higher level of hearing
  loss
• provide corroborating information about their
  language difficulties e.g. previous English
  grades, teacher/instructor comments, and
  self-reports.
•  
• Note the provision of extended time for the
  above reasons is not intended to compensate when
  English is a second language for the student.
  (UBC)

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Classroom Captioning

• Only 2 students in the study used captioning in
  the classroom.
• In general captioning use is increasing at pse
  institutions
• At UBC 5 users of classroom captioning in 2003-04
  compared to 2 users in 2002-03. Note two of
  these students are deaf and are sign language
  users, and the other three are hard of
  hearing/oral deaf students (non-sign language
  users).

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Classroom Captioning

•  
• From my study, two students cited being deterred
  from captioning use because of cost.
• Charlie I have asked about it. But its too
  expensive.
• Carol had requested captioning at her university,
  and was informed that because it had never been
  offered at the university before, the university
  had to sort out pay grades for the captionist.
• Carol Its funny because I heard all these good
  things about University Y so I made the
  assumption that it would be the same up here, and
  it is not.

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Classroom Captioning

•  
• Rachel ran into problems getting captioning
  because the equipment was stolen.
• Rachel I think if I had it for all my classes I
  would have been able to participate in class
  discussion and stuff.
• One student tried and then declined captioning
  because he preferred to take his own notes.

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Classroom Captioning

•  
• One student expressed concern about whether she
  was entitled to use captioning.
• Jennifer I think I dont want to stand out too
  much although Ive been thinking, Why not? Its
  there I think if I were deaf, I wouldnt be
  able to be in a classroom unless I have that,
  therefore it is my right and I want it.
• I can really try to hear. I can try harder. I can
  get by. Its just a little bit. Would they
  believe I need it? Would they believe I am hard
  of hearing enough that I really feel I need this?
  

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Classroom Captioning

•   Eligibility criteria at UBC
• To be eligible for captioning a student must
• have a significant hearing loss-severe/profound
  loss - or less than 90 speech discrimination
  with a moderate severe hearing loss
• OR
• have a moderate/severe hearing loss (50 to 70
  decibel) and have utilized other forms of hearing
  access and found these to be unsatisfactory.

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Classroom Captioning
Audiological profiles of students who have used
captioning Student One Severe in the right ear
and severe/profound in the left ear Speech
discrimination, 64 right ear and 52 left
ear   Student Two Moderate severe (50 to 70
decibel loss). Speech discrimination 96 right
ear and 80 left ear    Student Three Severe
loss in one ear and a profound loss in another
ear (70 to 120 decibel loss).Speech dis. 88
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Assistive Listening Devices

• 5 out 14 students used ALDs, usually an FM system
• 5 others had tried the system but did not
  continue with its use in university
• felt it would not be useful
• did not want to be seen as visibly different
  from other students
• felt it too difficult to cart around classes
• 4 students never heard of an ALDs or learned
  about it too late

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Assistive Listening Devices
James It is so much better having one. Sometimes
its like night and day. Kathy It made it
easier because everything was amplified and I
didnt have to have people speak up. Made some
difference in class discussions but the FM picked
up extraneous noise like whispering which
normally I wouldnt hear. Ben disliked the
feedback he got from the system. Sarah found that
it keeps breaking down.  
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Assistive Listening Devices
Yvonne said she hated it. Yvonne I found it
quite cumbersome though. I couldnt carry it
around all the time, and having to return it to
the Centre and then bring it back to another
class, putting it on and making sure the teacher
got theirs put on.   Darcy All it did was make
the sounds that I wasnt able to interpret
louder. It didnt help me to understand any
better because I still needed to lipread. If I
cant see, I cant hear.
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Assistive Listening Devices
Three students experienced instructorsusing to
wear the transmitter part of the FM system.
Carol - in high school and she failed the
class. CarolBecause I missed what was being said
orally and tutorials, tutors and extra materials
just couldnt compensate for that. She said the
experience made her apprehensive about whether
she might run into the same difficulties in
university. I became more cautious when I came
to university knowing that there could be another
barrier that I might have to face in terms of
having to get them to wear it.
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Assistive Listening Devices
Charlie She wore it once and she said she
prefers that I set it up in front of the
speakers. Thats what I did but it would squeak
if I put it too close, and if I put it too far
back I would get the echo. Either way it wasnt
good for me. Then I asked her to start wearing my
FM set and she always made excuses as to why she
couldnt do it.   Charlie went to the DSO and a
Coordinator set up a meeting with the instructor,
the result being that she was going to wear the
FM system. However, Charlie recounts that this
never happened.
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Assistive Listening Devices
James also experienced an instructors initial
refusal to wear an FM system, but the refusal was
based on a lack of understanding. James got to
the class with only a minute to spare and so he
didnt have time to give a detailed explanation
of the device James He thought it was a real
microphone and he was worried about how it would
affect and bouncing off the wall, so he said,
No, no, I dont want to wear that. Then I told
him I really need to use this. Then he said he
will wear it. By the end of it he realized what
it was, what it was doing. He said, Sorry about
what he had said.
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Assistive Listening Devices
Criteria for eligibility Documentation of a
hearing loss and recommendation of an audiologist
for an ALDs.
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Notetaking
Notetaking was the most widely used of all the
disability-related services. Some students got
notes for all of their classes while other
students got notes for only a few classes.
Kathy I have a fair amount of my own and
sometimes I only have the notetakers because the
teacher was talking too fast to write it. Fairly
important. I like having notes just in case I
miss something. If using a 7-point scale I would
say about a 5.  
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Notetaking
Charlie relied on notetakers extensively.
Charlie I dont have that ability to filter out
unnecessary information because I am struggling
physically literally to hear. I hear everything
up to that point and then I write it down and
then I miss in-between that and where I pick up.
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Notetaking
  If an instructor has English as a second
language, a soft speaking voice or unusual speech
patterns, the student was more inclined to get a
notetaker than otherwise. Sarah There were
times when I needed notetakers. Only if the
instructors English is a second language but
that hasnt happened very much.
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Notetaking
  Type of class influenced the use of
notetaking. Yvonne She presents a lot of
information. And, although I have a good, solid
background in educational psychology, to be able
to understand the material, I felt that it makes
more sense for me to focus on paying attention to
what she is saying and have a notetaker.
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Notetaking
  Some students did their own notes. Darcy did
his notes on a laptop computer and found that,
while typing, he was able to watch the instructor
and classmates - important because of his need to
read lips for comprehension. Darcy Versus
reading someone elses notes, using a computer it
sticks in my mind better.
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Notetaking
  Notetaking problems can ensue. Yvonne With
this particular class I had to go through three
notetakers because the first one was ineligible
the second one, she dropped out of the whole
thing. I ended up getting my notes for the class
three days before the mid-term exam.
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Notetaking
  Carol Some of my other notetakers will take
down stuff I can get out of the textbook. I need
things that come out of a lecture like the
different opinions that the professors may have
to give students and an idea of how this concept
can be applied, which the textbook might not look
at that view.
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Notetaking
  Criteria for Eligibility Documentation of a
hearing loss
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Tutoring
Half of the students received tutoring, usually
for one course for 2-3 hrs. weekly. Jennifer
Big impact, just that one-on-one and talking
strictly about the subject, just clarify things,
getting things explained more clearly to me it
helped immensely.
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Tutoring
Ben If you are in a class the teachers go at
this pace and has to accomplish so much per
lecture, and its very hard to follow along. But
when you have a tutor you can go three steps
forward and if you are not sure about something
you can go back one step practice it until you
get it right.
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Tutoring
Criteria for Eligibility Documentation of
hearing loss Need of additional support being
required or content in the classroom being missed
and not captured by other means.
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References
Antia, S. D., Stinson, M. S. Gaustad, M. G.
(2002). Developing membership in the education of
deaf and hard-of-hearing students in inclusive
settings. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf
Education, 7, 214-229. Killean, E. Hubka, D.
(1999). Working toward a coordinated national
approach to services, accommodations and policies
for post-secondary students with disabilities
Ensuring access to higher education and career
training. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada National
Educational Association of Disabled Students.
Menchel, R. S. (1996). Academically gifted deaf
students attending regular four-year colleges and
universities. Presented at the Seventh Biennial
Conference on Postsecondary Education for Persons
Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
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References
  Stinson, M. S. Antia, S. D. (1999).
Considerations in educating deaf and
hard-of-hearing students in inclusive settings.
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 4,
163-175. Stinson, M. S. Liu, Y. (1999).
Participation of deaf and hard-of-hearing
students in classes with hearing students.
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 4,
191-202. Warick, R. (1994a). A profile of
Canadian hard of hearing youth. Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 18,
253-259.
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Contact Information
Ruth P. Warick, PhD. University of British
Columbia E-mail ruth.warick_at_ubc.ca
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