The two main types of hearing loss are sensori-neural (nerve deafness which involves impairment of the auditory nerve) and conductive deafness (usually a dysfunction of a part of the ear mechanism). Hearing loss is measured by decibels, and according to the decibel count the loss may be mild, moderate or profound.

More individuals in the United States have a hearing impairment than any other physical disability. The 21 million people in the United States who have this disability differ considerably. A person may be born with a hearing loss or may become hard of hearing because of an accident or illness.

If the age of onset occurs before the acquisition of language and the development of speech, the individual may have language-based deficiencies such as poor syntax and vocabulary, and difficulty understanding abstract concepts.

Communicating with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

Although they may wear hearing aids, many students rely primarily on lip reading. Even highly skilled lip readers usually comprehend only 30-40% of what is said. Also, lip reading students frequently miss class members’ comments and have difficulty understanding instructors who cover their lips, face the chalkboard, move around, or have a mustache.

People who wear hearing aids may not hear sounds the way others do. Hearing aids amplify all sounds and can make small noises, loud air conditioners, hissing fluorescent light fixtures, traffic noise and the like, overwhelming. Sometimes people with hearing aids hear only jumbled and disjointed fragments.

An interpreter may be necessary to convey the oral message to the deaf student by the use of sign language as described in detail below.

There are many ways to make communication more effective with a person who is deaf. Santa Monica College hires sign-language interpreters to go to classes and meetings with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This is the most effective method of communication for such students.
 

If a sign-language interpreter is not available, such as if a deaf student drops by your office without making an appointment or if you happen upon the student in the cafeteria, here are some helpful hints for communicating:

· If the person lipreads, try speaking slowly and clearly, using short phrases. Do not raise your voice!

· If the person does not understand something you say, try rephrasing it. Don’t repeat the same thing over and over.

· Do not cover your mouth.

· Maintain eye contact.

· Not all deaf people lipread, so it may not work! Try using gestures and pantomime.

· It is not considered rude to offer a deaf person paper and a pen in order to communicate.

· If you know the American Sign Language alphabet, use it!

Luckily, SMC hires qualified interpreters for classes, labs, field trips, and exams whenever there is a stringent need for exact and efficient communication. The times that are necessary to communicate without an interpreter should be few.

Some communication modes which deaf people use are American Sign Language (ASL) or visual form of English such as Signed English, Signed Exact English or Cued Speech. ASL has its own sentence structure, grammatical principles, and semantics. It is not related to spoken or written English. Signed English uses the individual signs of ASL and puts them in English word order. Signed Exact English (SEE) and other similar signing systems were fabricated by educators in the hopes of teaching English to the deaf. Cued Speech is a way to manually ‘cue’ a lipreader as to what is being said on the mouth.

You can have a sign-language interpreter assigned to your class. An interpreter may be necessary to convey oral messages to the deaf or hard-of-hearing student by the use of American Sign Language (ASL) or a visual form of English (such as Signed Exact English or Cued Speech). When you are using the services of a sign-language interpreter to communicate with a deaf student, there are a few things to keep in mind.

The interpreter will do whatever possible to be inconspicuous so that communication can occur as naturally as possible among student, teacher, and classmates. To make this work as efficiently as possible, the interpreter would appreciate not having any undue attention drawn to him or her. It is not necessary to introduce the interpreter to the class, stop the lecture to make sure the interpreter is keeping up, or do anything else which would take time away from the class lecture.

The interpreter should not participate in the class or be asked to perform any duties other than interpreting. Please do not ask the interpreter to get the lights, pass out papers, tutor, or explain anything to the student after class. The interpreter is not there to summarize, supplement, or substitute for you and the knowledge you possess as a professor.

Feel free before and after class to ask questions about creating a better communicative environment. However, interpreters may not and will not give academic or personal information about the student; if appropriate, those questions are best answered by the student.

It is important that you use the same policies for a deaf student as you would with any of your hearing students, especially when adding and dropping from your class rosters.

The software which is used allows the students to add notes to the transcription. It also allows the student to type messages to the captioner, like, "Class is over early - I'm leaving." At the end of class, the captioner cleans up the notes and either emails them to the Lead Interpreter in Disabled Students Center, to be picked up, or directly to the student. The microphone, laptop computer, modem, and any other equipment will be set up by the Lead Interpreter, and will be collected by her or, in special cases, by the student at the end of each class session. This process sounds complicated, but it works very well and has been used successfully many times on this campus. To see a demonstration of this service, contact Lead Interpreter Mary Cancilla, who will make an appointment to show how it's done.

If an instructor is particularly uncomfortable with the fact that an entire lecture is being transcribed, he or she should discuss it with the Lead Interpreter Mary Cancilla. One solution is to have students sign a contract stating that they will not share their notes, publish transcripts, or whatever will ease the mind of the instructor. [See an Example of Contract].