Problems of Hearing Impaired Students in Higher Education

The goals of bridging the gaps:

• To make open all fields of study
• To focus on employability outcomes
• To create result-oriented system
• To enable disabled persons to make equal contributions to society in terms of their economic and social life participation
• To generate awareness among public about hearing disabilities and the needs of Hearing Impaired persons
• To advocate the rights and requirements of Hearing Impaired persons

National-level initiative is needed, which include:

• Establishment of state-level Disability Co-ordination programs to provide greater coordination of services for disabled people in vocational education and training.
• Allocation of funds to create study materials so that Hearing Impaired persons can learn with ease
• Development of effective system to identify and raise awareness about important issues
• Formation of strategic partnerships between training institute, lawmakers and potential employers to provide equal opportunities to people with disabilities

Removing education barriers:

Education is the most important issue for Hearing Impaired people. Generations of Hearing Impaired children have been and will continue to be ‘educated’ in a system controlled by people who are not Hearing Impaired and who focuses on deafness as a defect that needs to be fixed. The system attempts to educate them by using a language (English) that they neither know fluently and nor can access fully. These generations of Deaf children have emerged with poor English skills, poor education, poor general knowledge, and poor self-esteem.

Employment is the second most important issue.

Support services for Hearing Impaired persons:

Hearing impaired student must be provided adequate support services such as:

• Interpreters, who can translate lecture into language known to candidates.
• Counselors, who should be made available to all students to discuss personal, academic, or psychological problems.
• Individualized services. Some Hearing Impaired students seek assistance with class assignments or personal issues that they cannot share with others.

The factors to integrate disability groups

• Involve the Hearing Impaired community. Self help is more effective and efficient.
• Ensure the availability of technology enhancements such as websites, mobile telephone short message services (sms), and other visual information sources to assist Hearing Impaired students.
•  Encourage students to participate in vocational education and training. Interpreters should be available.
• Undertake staff training. Staff should be trained in basic sign language skills.
• Provide a wide range of language support services. Many Hearing Impaired students require the same language support as a person from another language background.
• Teaching group should be a manageable group. Valuable interactive sessions with the help of subtitled videos, PowerPoint presentations, handouts of lectures notes and web links on course materials are proven successful strategies to ensure the clarity and availability of courseware for all.
• Prepare course material using the Models of Instructional Design to make things easy for Hearing Impaired persons. Programmed courses where progress of understanding is evaluated at small increments are also beneficial.
• Create support groups. Support groups can provide support and minimize isolation. Hearing impaired students should be included in mainstream courses along with normal students.