Deafness

Having students who are deaf in your classroom can be a great challenge to the level of
accessibility of a class, but can also serve as a catalyst for making effective changes
that improve the classroom experience for all students. It can be easy to assume that a
student who is deaf has other physical or mental development delays; however, many
students who are deaf are very bright with average or above-average intelligence.

Characteristics
Deafness is defined by IDEA as a hearing impairment
so severe that the child is impaired in processing
linguistic information through hearing, with or without
amplification. For these students, a hearing aid is not
an acceptable accommodation because it would not
help a student who is deaf succeed in the classroom.
A student may have been deaf from birth, or may have
developed deafness at a later point in their life;
knowing the onset date of the students deafness is
important, as it may give their teacher an idea of how
familiar the student is with the English language.

CriteriaforEligibility
Deafness is not its verified disability in Rule 51, but falls under the Hearing Impairment
category. According to Rule 51, in order to qualify for special education services in the
category of Hearing Impairment a child must have an impairment in hearing which: is so
severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with
or without amplification, is permanent or fluctuating, and/or adversely affects
performance.

EffectsonEducation
Children who are deaf may struggle to follow spoken
content, especially delivered through lecture. With
lecture, students are often expected to participate in
note taking. If a student is expected to follow along
with a speaker by lip reading and also taking notes,
the student may fall behind or misinterpret the
content provided in the lecture. Participating in classroom discussion, while fairly simple
for others, is difficult for students who are deaf if he or she does not have an interpreter
to assist the student in the group discussion. Educational films or clips also provide
barriers for the students learning if subtitles are not provided for the student to read and
follow. For some students, their family may have the option to send them to a school for
the deaf; this is important for the teacher to bear in mind, since if they have chosen to
attend an able school over a school for the deaf, it means that the family and student
have placed a high level of importance on assimilating the student to a typical
classroom setting. Even though a deaf student may have significant challenges in the
classroom, accommodations should be made.

WhatitLooksLikeinaClassroom
For deaf students using sign language, English
may not be their first language. American Sign
Language (ASL) has its own syntax and
grammar, which varies from English. Written
work by deaf students may be difficult as ASL
does not have a written language. Writing in
English, a language the student may never
have heard before, will require accommodation.
In the classroom, it may be beneficial to assign
a child who is deaf to receive assistance from a
note taker so that he or she can focus on lip
reading during lectures. Being seated at the
front of the classroom may assist the student in
lip reading more effectively. PowerPoint
presentations and interpreters also assist
children in lectures. If discussion is part of the
classroom, educators can integrate technology resources to assist in class discussion
that does not include listening or speaking aloud.

Presentation Completed By: Annie Boesiger, Bailey Hirsch, and Shawn Larsen
https://www.uvm.edu/~cdci/universaldesign/?Page=teaching-accommodations/deaf.php&SM=teaching-accommodati
ons/submenu.html
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/mainstreaming02.htm
http://www.specialeducationguide.com/disability-profiles/deafness/
http://www.specialeducationguide.com/disability-profiles/deafness/
https://www.ccaurora.edu/mycca/web/accessibility/teaching-strategies-deaf-hard-of-hearing