Hi Bryan,

I hope my reply can be passed back to this anon - and hopefully it will 
be helpful.

Some clarity about the "roger hearing aid" is needed. I think this isn't 
a "Roger Hearing aid", but a Phonak Roger radio aid/FM system which is 
an addition to the hearing aid itself.

I would hope the Roger is connected to the student's hearing aids via 
one of the many wireless option which minimises electro magnetic 
interference. I know several deaf and HOH people (inc those with cochlea 
implants) who speak highly of the Roger system for sound quality and 
ease of use.

http://www.phonak.com/com/b2c/en/products/wireless-accessories/products/roger-pen/hearing-aid-accessory.html 
is a webpage showing a bit more about this.

An induction loop T setting is unlikely to be better than any 
FM/radio/wireless system (such as the Roger) and will probably pick up 
interference from lots of other things.  The key aspects are "Sound into 
the system" and "Sound from system to the student's hearing aids etc". 
The Phonak Roger should handle both of those well.

I wonder if there is a local Teacher of the Deaf who specialises in 
technology OR the equipment supplier who could look over the student's 
tech and check it's all set up properly and working. We have a set up 
where we can request support from our local teacher of the deaf service 
in Birmingham for £115 an hour which is worth every penny and DSA will 
fund it as NMH.

I know people who have turned down training on radio aids cos it's £600 
and they think that's shocking but then there may be a technical config 
issue that only an experienced Teacher of the Deaf or tech supplier 
would spot quickly. Most disability officers reasonably don't know how 
this works. I'd have a chance myself by "read the manual and guess" but 
that's cos I am "techie", I use a radio aid myself and I know what it's 
doing (or supposed to do!).  Has this student had and taken up their 
training?  Will the equipment supplier advise on "configuration" i.e a 
second microphone unit might be needed.

If the Phonak Roger is set up properly I'm not sure that any other 
equipment is going to help the student understand groups of students, 
especially those with different regional UK and foreign accents.  This 
is a common issue for hard of hearing students.  Student X presumably 
has limited or no access to lipreading due to her visual impairment 
making it additionally hard.  This is an unsolved problem for us 
deaf/HOH people and one we often only encounter for the first time at 
university.  Additionally it takes deaf people longer to switch focus 
between speakers than an equivalent hearing person, so we often lose the 
first 5-10 words and lose context more easily.

Speech to Text Reporting may need to be considered for seminars and 
depending on how they are chaired it may need to be in-person although I 
have seen remote work well when the tech for that is set up correctly. 
The seminars would still need to be properly chaired, one person 
speaking at a time, as much prep as possible about the vocab and content 
as possible etc.  Anything which enables this student to know the names 
of her classmates is good - photos with names etc on the VLE maybe? 
This will help her know who is speaking next...

A trick I advise academics use is "only speak when you're holding the 
MascotTM" and have some cuddly toy or microphone for a radio aid as the 
Mascot.  That way the chair (tutor) can say "Fred next" *pass mascot* 
and Fred then speaks.  The natural pauses this introduces give the deaf 
student a chance to keep up without feeling as if they're always 10 
words behind.  The chair can also cue "change of topic" or "ok so we've 
just discussed the differences between Football and Rugby which were X Y 
and Z the same and ABC different."

The tutor could encourage the other students to be courteous, if the 
deaf student is struggling there's a chance other non deaf students are 
struggling too.  All speakers speaking slowly and clearly should be 
encouraged and those who are gabbling can be encouraged to "Stop, slow 
down, try speaking a little slower" "You've got some great points but 
you're talking very quickly which is hard to understand, slow down" etc. 
Those who interrupt others need to be stopped "Anna, let me stop you 
there, Fred was speaking and if you interrupt people can't understand 
the conversation. OK Fred now carry on".  The students will soon learn 
what is expected of them if they are chaired firmly - heck giving them 
"expectations for seminar behaviour" in writing would not harm anyone. 
Different cultures have different "social rules" about conversational 
turn-taking. It can be very difficult for overseas students to know what 
the UK rules are and we can be oh so British and tut and sigh and scowl 
when we actually need to be quite direct about the rules and enforcing 
them!

Anyone who persistently doesn't meet expectations once they've been laid 
out to the class should be dealt with as any other conduct issue so 
quiet word escalating upwards...

I have had students who sign use interpreters for seminars only, but I 
am guessing this student does not sign and or doesn't have the vision to 
use that effectively so that's not useful - but the advisor should ask 
and check.

One of my deaf students is a BSL user with 2 terps in seminars and his 
tutors make a feature of inclusive chairing by almost choreographing the 
students to talk to one another "Who wants to answer Fred's point? OK 
Ahmed *pass the mascot* you respond" which has worked amazingly well and 
my student says he feels included and positively challenged to achieve 
high standards.

The deaf student may also benefit from additional tutorial support to 
ensure she's understood the main outcomes of seminars and can link them 
to learning outcomes.

I wish this student well, seminars are not going to be easy but 
hopefully with some changes they can be improved a bit.

Natalya


On 16/10/14 18:14, Bryan Coleman wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Please see the anonymised e-mail from an adviser here below. If anyone
> has any experience they can share or advice it would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bryan
>
> X is visually and hearing impaired.  She is experiencing issues with her
> seminars – she is struggling to hear the other students, especially in
> seminar debates. Some of the problem is  people talking over others, but
> the main issue is hearing the others and understanding their accents –
> the students have different dialects and come from different
> nationalities.  She finds it difficult to contribute to small group work
> at the time and is obviously missing out on the debates and making a
> contribution.  (She is getting notes for those sessions.)  She uses a
> Roger hearing aid but I wondered whether having a mobile hearing loop
> would help her pick up the group stuff.  She may be able to get the T
> setting installed on her hearing aid during reading week but would need
> to check with the audiologist whether there would be a conflict with the
> hearing aid she is currently using.   I am going to let the department
> know about this so it is on record and tutors need to know there is an
> issue and it is not just that she is unwilling.   They may be able to
> help with more effective chairing of the seminars although we don’t
> think that will help resolve things.  Any ideas about equipment/strategies?
>
> Bryan Coleman
>
> Head of Disability and Dyslexia Support Service
>
> University of Sheffield
>
> The Hillsborough Centre
>
> Alfred Denny Building
>
> Western Bank
>
> Sheffield
>
> S10 2TN
>
> Tel 0114 2221303
>
> www.sheffield.ac.uk/disability <http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/disability>
>