Turn on your captions: for students with hearing loss

LX / Turn on your captions: for students with hearing loss

This post was written by Angelique Milojevic.

Not all hearing disabilities are the same and not everyone with a hearing impairment has had the same lived experiences. Symptoms vary from person to person. The most common hearing loss type is high-frequency hearing loss which means that high-pitched sounds are harder for
them to hear. I have the opposite problem.

I have profound hearing impairment in my low frequencies and mild loss in my high frequencies. This means I have big challenges when people mumble or turn away when they speak, and challenges hearing male speakers due to their deeper voices. I barely hear fans and rain, nor can I
make out the noises outside (so it’s not all bad).

I rely heavily on my ability to lipread and captions are very useful. I need to sit on the opposite side of a table to my lecturer/ tutor or sit up the front near the speaker so that I can see their lips clearly. It’s not much use to me sitting up the back when a lecturer is using a microphone as it isn’t clear enough for me to hear well enough. This all puts extra strain on me cognitively. I struggle with consonants thus I miss certain words and my brain has to catch up, filling in with a word that makes sense in the sentence structure whilst also trying to comprehend what is being taught. It isn’t just about enunciation or how loud you are speaking. For example, if you are facing a whiteboard with your back to the class and you speak loudly I will still struggle to hear.

Don’t get me started on masks! I’ve been told by people who have perfect hearing that it is hard for them to hear so imagine what it is like for those of us that need to see lips and need clarity of speech.

Here are some universal tips to help your hard of hearing students

Online

Make sure your head takes up most of the space in your video camera and that there is good lighting on your face so those of us that can lipread can clearly see your lips
Make sure you are close to your microphone.
Ensure you do not mumble by speaking clearly, enunciating your words.
Turn on captions.

Offline

If you know your student has hearing loss, please do not assume that you need to speak slowly. We may be partially deaf, but we’re not unintelligent.
If you have a big class, and students are asking questions, repeat that question back to the class so we can all hear. Same again if the environment is noisy.
Please do not speak or turn away to the whiteboard or screen. Project your voice towards the class.