On 29/01/14 10:18, Sheenagh Hull wrote:
> Also – some brief recent discussion off-list with anecdotal examples of
> poor recommendations in some DSA reports for deaf students. Is anyone
> noticing any increase or decrease in the quality of recommendations(ie
> in the expertise of the assesor about deaf people)?

What a good question!

I'm a disability adviser at Birmingham University and I loosely 
specialise in deaf students as much as we specialise (and are trying to 
spread expertise amongst our team now).  I am severely deaf from birth 
and have other impairments, but it was my deafness which I struggled 
with most at university 15 years ago.

I would love to hear what assessors feel they don't know about dead 
students as well as what assessors perhaps don't know that they don't 
know. Cos that way we could work out what information/knowledge needs to 
be shared more widely.

I do feel deaf students' reports are often less good than they could be. 
This isn't surprising with deaf students making up about 2% of the DSA 
population. I do also feel that the whole DSA assessment can end up 
biased towards students with SpLDs because they are a large majority.

Issues I have specifically seen

An assessor has believed that a partially-deaf student cannot have a 
radio aid AND a notetaker because SFE won't agree to it being two 
solutions to a single problem.

I think this misunderstanding arises some assessors not knowing that a 
radio aid and notetaking have different functions and that deaf people 
face two issues with accessing lectures.
1) Realtime access to spoken content, radio aids can assist with this as 
can BSL interpreters, lipspeakers or speech to text reporters 
(palantypists).

2) Notes relating to the lecture's content. A deaf person often has to 
lipread speakers and cannot easily make notes while looking away from 
the speaker. There are also issues of auditory memory, mishearing and 
fatigue.

I have also seen assessors struggle to understand why communication 
support is needed for some sessions and not others.  I've had students 
use STTR for one seminar and not others, or find that they need a sign 
language interpreter for seminars to follow different speakers even with 
using a radio aid.

A radio aid is often helpful but does not negate the need for other 
support.  SFE's weird ideas of one problem == one solution doesn't match 
reality where it's a case of a mix n match approach with some solutions 
not being 100%.

Other issues are harder to define, they usually feel like the assessor 
doesn't understand deafness and what it's like not to hear normally.

Hearing aids do not restore "normal" hearing, this is why people who use 
hearing aids can be classified as disabled when people who have vision 
correctable by spectacles can't.  Hearing aids pick up all the sounds - 
so loud sound far away can sound like a quieter sound nearby. 
Directionality is often poor. Background noise is more of a problem. No 
cocktail party effect.

Hearing in a 1:1 situation is very different from hearing in a group or 
larger lecture situation. Deaf people lose out on "incidental learning" 
so they don't hear what classmates are saying (and may indeed struggle 
to hear and socialise with them, especially if many are from overseas).

Fatigue is common problem for our deaf students of all levels of 
deafness. Pre university information is often "here's your homework, 
there's the textbook". University is "Here's your assignment, there's 
the WHOLE library!".  The quantity and quality of information is much 
much higher so students can find they're just not picking up enough 
information.

Every deaf person is different, some profoundly deaf students need 
minimal assistance, while some milder deaf students really struggle. It 
is about discussing the impact of the deafness on each individual and 
solving those issues.  A deaf person's educational history can make a 
huge difference to their experience and how they present to a disability 
advisor or assessor.  Not everyone gets a lot of intervention at school 
or from parents (who are the key factor in success of deaf children 
educationally).

Resources wise these two papers are well worth reading although the 
second one requires an HEI subscription.

Hyde, M. et al (2009) The experiences of deaf and hard of hearing 
students at a Queensland University 1985-2005. Higher Education Research 
& Development 28 (1).
Full-text 
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/41092018_The_experiences_of_deaf_and_hard_of_hearing_students_at_a_Queensland_university_1985-2005/file/9fcfd510ef568c0cf9.pdf 



Powell, D. et al (2014) Inclusion in Postsecondary Institutions With 
Small Numbers of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students: Highlights and 
Challenges Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 9 (1): 126-140.


Would it be worth compiling useful resources like these papers,

the UK Health Professionals with a Hearing Loss link Sheenagh posted to 
NADP http://hphl.org.uk/category/ukhphl which I'd never heard of (and 
I've got loads of HOH medics/dentists assigned to me recently).

Information about how to get equipment training from organisations such 
as Connevans and Gordon Morris.

And things I haven't thought of...

Natalya