Using+Technology+for+the+Hearing+Impaired

Supporting Hearing-Impaired Students through Educational Technology
Through the years hearing impaired students have had difficulties learning and understanding the same way the average student would. With the ever so fast evolving world of technology, learning for the hearing impaired is just a text message away. With all the controversy of students using cell phones, I wouldn't want to stop somebody from learning with a little assistance from a cell phone. Why not use one of your other senses(sight) to your advantage to text, email, and view websites so that learning can be interactive and beneficial. When the hearing-impaired students are no longer disadvantaged because they can clearly understand the lessons and instructions, their academic performance will greatly improve.

Below are some other examples of technology that can be used to help a hearing-impaired student succeed in the classroom. 1. **Assistive Learning Systems** - These devices enable an instructor's voice to be transmitted from a microphone (worn by the instructor) to the hearing-impaired student. With this device, the instructor's voice is clear, enabling the student to listen attentively without the distraction of background noise.

2. **Speech-to-Text Systems** - These systems convert spoken language into written language, enabling a professor to provide written transcripts of each lesson to hearing-impaired students.

3. **E-Learning** - The growing popularity of online learning courses has allowed many hearing-impaired students to study at their own pace via a web browser.

4. **Lecture Capture Systems** - These systems enable professors to record their lectures and to post them online for students to review after class via a web browser, iPod, or mobile device. Professors with hearing-impaired students are finding it beneficial to record an interpreter as part of the class capture experience. When the students review the recording after class, they are able to see both the interpreter and the material presented in class within the same screen, allowing them to fully grasp the subject matter.

5. **Websites, text messaging and e-mail** are also visual ways to assist hearing-impaired students. These are just a few of the many strategies being used in today's classrooms to enhance the education of hearing-impaired students. By combining assistive technologies with other classroom methods, instructors can help eliminate the gap between the educational performance of hearing-impaired students and students with normal hearing while adhering to ADA requirements.

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