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Hearing Impairments/Deafness

What are hearing impairments/deafness?

Hearing impairments are impairments that cause someone to not hear as well as someone with normal hearing. Hearing impairments can range from mild to profound, and deafness occurs when the person has profound hearing loss. Hearing impairments can be disabling, which those who have disabling hearing impairments have hearing loss greater than 35 decibels. Disabling hearing loss increases with age; among those who are over 60, 25% of the population are affected by disabling hearing loss.

Characteristics

Characteristics of hearing impairments/deafness include:

  • Muffled speech and other sounds

  • Trouble understanding words, especially in crowded spaces

  • Trouble hearing letters of the alphabet that aren't vowels

  • Often asking others to speak more slowly, clearly, and loudly

  • Needing to turn up the volume of electronic devices

  • Staying clear of some social settings

  • Being bothered by background noise

  • Ringing in ears, known as tinnitus

Accomodations

  • Use interpreters who know ASL to help deaf students understand what you're saying

  • Speech to text services

  • Assisitive Listening Students

  • Note takers

  • Captioned Media

  • Give students extended time on tests

  • Let students use glossaries or dictionaries

  • Frequent breaks

  • Scribes to record signed or dictated responses

  • Oral transliteration

  • Cued Language Transliteration

Sources/Resources:

Hearing Loss Association of America: https://www.hearingloss.org/

World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss

Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20373072

National Deaf Center: https://nationaldeafcenter.org/resources/access-accommodations/

Mobility International USA: https://miusa.org/resource/tip-sheets/deafaccommodations/

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