West Virginia University School of Medicine has its first-ever deaf student, a trainee doctor who’s seeking to change stereotypes, one patient at a time. Read: WVU School of Medicine’s first deaf student >> Thirty years ago, the US had three certified physicians who were deaf. Clear surgical masks and amplified or visual stethoscopes are now available
Monica Heck, a past student of journalism at DCU, wrote a feature piece on deaf students at third-level in Ireland, for DCU’s College View paper. Read: Deafness at Third Level Each student will choose different supports at third-level. Some prefer speed-text (digital note-taking), or CART (ad verbatim note-taking), with a minority preferring sign-interpreters. Ireland’s Deaf Pupils
“Communication technologies [for] people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing are just as much for the general hearing public… in that they foster communication between both groups.” ** Think of SMS texting on mobile phones, web-chat (via text, video or voice), and Facebook or Twitter posts as everyday solutions for universal access. Real-time captioning (CART) and
A new smartphone-transcription service, devised in Germany by two social entrepreneurs, enables deaf and hard-of-hearing people to communicate without sign language or live interpreters. Read: Creating Life With Subtitles The live-subtitling system will use voice-to-text solutions to create voice-maps to transcribe dialogue in classrooms, schools and doctors’ offices. Further Reading Disability Law News Journal: Deaf Children and
At IDK’s tech and education event in Dublin on October 10th 2011, a few tech solutions were profiled for their role in facilitating children with hearing issues to listen, communicate and learn in mainstream environments. Classroom Technology As A Leveler A key point: technology needs integrating into an environment, to benefit everyone present – not just
IDK is hosting a seminar, “Communicate, Educate, Integrate – Technology and Deaf Children in Mainstream Environments” on October 10th, 2011, in Dublin. This FREE event is for everyone with an interest in hearing, communication, language, learning and leveling technologies for deaf children/students in mainstream settings. No prior understanding of deafness or of the technology solutions
The teaching of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing has altered with technologies like cochlear implants and speech-to-text tools, according to a recent report from Project Forum, at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, in the US. Read: Technology Has Changed The Teaching Of Deaf Students Notable findings in the report include: Greater acceptance
Statistically, more deaf and hard-of-hearing students are enrolling in mainstream third-level institutions in the US (Raue & Lewis, 2011). The same is happening in Ireland, with more students in this diverse deaf population accessing higher education than ever before. Tertiary education supports students who: have hearing aids and use their residual hearing have a cochlear implant (CI)
Ireland has about 880,000 people with hearing issues (deafened, and deaf), while about 1,077 people who use ISL are in the signing Deaf community, at 0.1% (zero point one per cent) of the total population. During a recent chat in a Dublin hotel, two of the Sound Advice team were interrupted by an academic. He
NOTE: Digital hearing-devices are available earlier, to many pupils and students since this post was written in 2011. Some are accessing sound from infancy with actual independence and self-directed learning in their classrooms. The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme in schools in Ireland was assessed in value-for-money terms by the Department of Education and Skills