Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

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Tips for Teaching Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

The Classroom Environment:

• Standing in front of a light source puts your face in a shadow, making it very difficult to speechread you.

• Try to avoid speaking any time the student can't see your face, such as when you write on the board or walk around the room.

• When using an overhead projector, stand to the side of the projector so that it doesn't block your face.

• If a PA microphone is used in a large classroom, keep the microphone below the mouth to facilitate speechreading.

• Use visual aids whenever possible.

• When referring to items on the board, try to be specific about the word or phrase you're making reference to by pointing directly to it.

• When showing a videotape to the class, make sure it is captioned and that the television has a decoder. Make sure any videos you purchase are captioned. Videos may be 'open captioned' (always visible) or 'closed captioned' (visible only when a decoder reveals them). Your disability services office may have the ability to caption some videos.

• Be aware of the noise level. Students who are hard of hearing, whether or not they are using an assistive listening device, may be very sensitive to environmental sounds, which tend to 'mask' speech. Background noise should be kept to a minimum.