Maintained by drc@ucsc.edu

Tips For Working with a Hard of Hearing Student

1. Optimum use of visual cues, such as lip-reading will usually require seating at the front of the classroom. Remember gum chewing, hand placement, and a turned back can all interfere with the student's ability to read your lips/facial expressions.
2. When communication breaks down, try to re-phrase instead of repeat. Consider using basic hand cues to assist with comprehension. Also, with most hard of hearing students, speaking very loudly or over-enunciating is not helpful. Instead, speak at a normal rate and enunciate clearly.
3. Wear the FM system microphone if a student is using an Assistive Listening Device (ALD). There is no special set-up required to use a FM system. The student will give you a small microphone which will transmit your voice, via radio waves, to their earphone or hearing aid. Microphones vary slightly, but most clip on or have a light-weight loop to go around the speaker's neck.
4. Check lighting. If you are darkening a room for a program (e.g. a slide presentation), make sure there is sufficient lighting on a speaker for the student to lip-read.
5. Give materials to the student in advance whenever possible. Advanced copies of lecture notes, hand-outs, song lyrics, et cetera will help orient the hard of hearing student and allow him/her to track the class discussion. If you are playing an audio tape, discuss with the student how s/he can best access that information.
6. Provide captioning for videos whenever possible. See the flyer "Wondering How to Get Videos Captioned," for more information on this accommodation.
7. If there is a group discussion consider the best way for the hard of hearing participant to know who is talking when (possibly require raised hands, taking turns coming to the podium, etc). Also, consider how the discussion facilitates inclusion and/or makes it difficult for the student to participate and fully benefit. The student may exhibit less group participation if s/he is having difficulty following what is being said. If the student relies on an Assistive Listening Device, which usually focuses the microphone on one person, discuss with the student how to use the system with multiple speakers. Check with campus Media Services to see if they have a multi-directional microphone compatible with a FM system.
8. Repeat questions from others in the classroom before answering, or consider having individuals come to the front of the class to state their questions or comments. Most hard of hearing students will not be able to benefit from any questions or comments from the audience if the speaker's face cannot be seen and the person's voice is not amplified with a microphone.
9. Emphasize important information such as assignments, schedule changes and due dates by writing details on a chalkboard and/or providing written handouts.

QUESTIONS? If appropriate, clarify disability-related needs with the student, or contact DRC at 459-2089

Please review these tips with TA's and discussion leaders