What is hearing assistive technology and how can it help students?

In my last post we discussed the difference between students who are deaf and students who are hard of hearing and the challenges they face in the classroom everyday. Some questions that come up often are what exactly is hearing assistive technology is and how it is beneficial for students who are hard of hearing?

Hearing assistive technology is a tool that helps people with hearing loss. Some examples of devices made to aid students with hear impairments are alerting devices. These devices will tell a person with hearing impairment of something like a smoke detector is going off. There are devices in the classroom that benefit students with hearing impairment learn better.

Some examples of devices that help students with hearing impairments in the classroom are assistive listening devices (ALDs) because they help to reduce the noise in a classroom allowing the student to hear teachers and students better. FM systems allows the student the ability to hear their teacher more clearly. The teacher wears the wireless microphone attached to his or her shirt and a transmitter around their waistband. Students wear headphones or earbuds. This is extremely beneficial because students don't have to worry about missing any of the lecture it's like they are standing right next to their teacher. The final device I will blog about today is Soundfield Amplification System. The SAS works though speakers that are mounted the the walls. Students can also sit with a speaker next to them.  Much like the FM system, this allows the student to feel like the teacher is standing right next to him or her. 

In the next blog post, I will touch on the topic of Universal design and computer access. 


Assistive Technology in the Classroom Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities