Master’s Resources for Students with Hearing Disabilities

The number of Americans with a master’s degree is on the rise. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 13.1% of American adults have an advanced degree—up from 8.6% two decades ago. But if you’re a deaf adult with a master’s degree, you’re in a much smaller group. The National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes reports that 6.6% of deaf adults have a master’s degree. This gap is wider than if you compared the deaf and hearing adults who have an associate or bachelor’s degree, providing strong evidence that graduate students who are hearing impaired face challenges in the classroom.

Online master’s degree programs might provide an answer. Unlike a traditional classroom, remote learning can give hearing impaired students the same learning experiences as their hearing peers. Asynchronous classes, self-paced curricula, and the ability to take in lecture material using closed captions or special headphones decrease barriers and increase engagement with the content.

Despite these benefits, challenges remain. In this guide, we’ll touch on some of the hurdles that may exist in online master’s degree programs and how deaf or hard of hearing students can overcome them. We’ll also identify resources that students with hearing impairments can use to maximize their learning potential.

Whether a student attends class virtually or in a physical classroom, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, along with state laws and regulations, require almost all postsecondary schools to accommodate the needs of disabled students. But often, these accommodations aren’t enough to put hearing impaired students on the same playing field as their peers. On campus, deaf and hard of hearing students face difficulties getting the accommodations they need. For example, setting up a wireless microphone and audio transmission system in a classroom could be more expensive and time consuming than adding captions to a pre-recorded online video lecture.

Even if schools provide the accommodations as requested, built-in limitations may still make it harder for a deaf student to learn the material. Let’s look at some of the special challenges hearing impaired students encounter in a typical classroom.

This could be one of the hardest parts of attending in-person classes as a student with limited hearing. Sitting up front, using special wireless systems that sync up with a hearing aid, or receiving the assistance of a note taker are typical accommodations that can help. But these have limitations, may not be an option for the student, or may not be permitted by the school. Plus, many courses use online videos to supplement in-person course materials. These videos can be difficult for the deaf and hard of hearing to learn from. For example, if the audio isn’t recorded properly, it can be hard to hear what’s being said. Simply boosting the volume doesn’t help because background noise from the recording gets louder and can drown out what’s being said in the video. When available, closed captioning or subtitles can help but not all online videos (such as those on YouTube) have captions or subtitles.

Participating in classroom discussions is one of the major benefits of taking classes in person. Impromptu learning lessons can create some of the most memorable learning moments in your academic career. But for a deaf and hard of hearing student, whatever accommodations exist to help the student listen to the professor may not apply to class discussions. For example, a professor might use a special wireless microphone to transmit what they say to the student’s hearing aid. However, when a student in the class speaks, they won’t be using this microphone and the deaf and hard of hearing student won’t hear what’s being said.

One of the biggest reasons to attend class on campus is to have the opportunity to interact with classmates—something that can be difficult for deaf and hard of hearing students. A school will most likely not have the same accommodations at an ice cream social as it would at a class lecture. Other factors also play a role; a recent example is the use of face masks due to the coronavirus pandemic. If a deaf and hard of hearing student relies on lip reading to understand what someone is saying, then their chances to communicate with someone wearing a mask are greatly diminished.

Let’s say a teacher has prepared a lecture with written text and pictures in a PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint slides are shown in sync with the teacher’s in-class narration. A deaf student might choose to have a sign language interpreter sign what the teacher says in class. But a problem arises when the teacher is talking about what’s on a slide. While most students can hear what’s being said as they view the slide’s contents, a deaf and hard of hearing student is instead watching their interpreter. After they see what’s being said, they shift their eyes to the slide itself. By then, the teacher has moved on to the next slide. In a case like this, the professor can adjust their presentation to add pauses so deaf and hard of hearing students have a chance to both see their interpreter’s signs and view the PowerPoint slide.

Adjusting your work schedule around class times and commuting to campus is inconvenient for any student. Luckily, taking classes virtually reduces some of these problems by offering self-paced learning, asynchronous classes, and no commute. Some of the benefits of online learning include:

One of the struggles for hearing impaired students is that, because of how class information is presented, it can take longer for them to learn the same concepts. Luckily, many online classes offer self-paced learning. While the amount of time a student has to complete an in-person course requirement depends on the school, program, and subject, online learning often allows students to complete a course as quickly or slowly as they like. That flexibility gives any student the opportunity to get clarification or tutoring on course materials that are unclear.

With remote students limited to online communication, professors and classmates adjust how they share information. This can result in better communication from the professor to the students, including more prompt email replies, a greater familiarity with video chat technology, and increased availability for online assistance.

In a traditional class, students use a textbook and lectures from the professor. Much of the critical information is contained in those lectures. If a student doesn’t take good notes, they could miss critical concepts. But in an online program, lectures are on the Internet. This means that closed captioning may be built into the videos and that students can watch the video as many times as they like to ensure they get all of the information.

Most lectures from a professor should have closed captioning or subtitles available. Even though these are required for deaf and hard of hearing students, the rest of the class might appreciate this feature, too. Maybe there are a few students who can hear just fine but want to watch the lecture in a public place and would rather read (instead of listen to) what’s being said.

When students are in a classroom, special steps are necessary to accommodate hearing impaired students. But with many forms of virtual learning, all students are reading words on a screen— something hearing impaired students are very familiar with. For example, for an in-person class a deaf and hard of hearing student might not be able to hear or participate in a class discussion. But if that discussion takes place on a message board, all students, whether hearing impaired or not, read the comments and add their thoughts.

If a lecture is pre-recorded, the professor most likely is using a digital camera and microphone and converting the content into digital form. As a result, online programs often have classroom accommodations for deaf students already taken care of as part of the content delivery process or they may require only a small amount of additional effort, such as captioning pre-recorded videos.

When a student knows they can take additional time to complete a class assignment without first having to get approval, it eliminates stress. Knowing most of the class material is already presented in a way that doesn’t require a special assistant or piece of technology reduces a student’s worry about missing important class information.

Even though online learning has inherent qualities that make it more accommodating for the hearing impaired, there are still a plethora of assistive technologies that an online master’s degree student may find helpful. Many schools have special centers or departments that focus on providing this assistance. For example, Harvard University has the Assistive Technology Center, which focuses on providing assistive technology technical support to all students. Below is a list of assistive technology options professors can use to adjust their course materials to accommodate the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students.

Captioning is the addition of text to a video so that the spoken portion of the video can be read in addition to being heard. Captioning can either open or closed. Open captioning is part of the video, so captions are always part of what’s being viewed. Closed captions are on a separate “track” from the video, so they can be turned off by the user. Captions can be added to the video in real time by a captioner or transcriber, added by a person after a recording is made, or prepared as a transcript.

As its name implies, this technology converts the speech portions of a video or audio recording to text that a student can read. Speech to text can be provided as a service in which speech is converted live by a transcriber. Speech to text can also exist as technology, usually software that automatically converts the speech portions of a video into text that the viewer reads. Speech to text completed by technology is far cheaper than using a transcriber, but it’s not as accurate.

This is similar to speech to text in that someone converts spoken words into written words. But audio transcription can include the translating of information. So instead of the transcriber converting what’s being said word for word, the transcriber instead takes the meaning of what’s being said and writes that for the deaf student to read. This form of audio transcription gives students the ability to get clarification about the information directly from the transcriber.

Those who have difficulty hearing might use hearing aids or cochlear implants that work just fine for real-world sounds. But listening to audio through computer speakers or headphones can be unpleasant and difficult due to how the student’s hearing device works. The student may need a special adapter that plugs into a computer headphone jack then links up with the hearing aid or cochlear implant (wirelessly or with a cable). This allows students to hear the sounds from their computers much more easily.

Not all students are comfortable with reading what’s being said. Instead, they’d rather receive information in the form of sign language. This is often done through the use of a person translating spoken word into sign language. But hiring a sign language interpreter can be expensive. Technology that takes voice audio and converts it into real-time sign language is fairly new, and its accuracy isn’t perfect. It requires voice recognition software that learns how the speaker talks to create the most accurate version.

While special accessories allow a student to connect their hearing aid or cochlear implant to their computer, sometimes a simpler solution is to use higher quality speakers or headphones. External speakers can provide a rich, full sound over a wider range of frequencies, making it easier to understand audio. High quality headphones can do the same; those that go over the entire ear and have noise canceling properties may benefit certain students, depending on their unique hearing needs and the background sounds they’re dealing with.

Presenting real-time class discussions in text form instead of video or audio can make it far easier for a deaf student to follow what’s being said as well as make their own contributions. Instant messages automatically identify who is saying what. They also force students to take an extra moment to think about what they want to say, which can improve the quality of the in-class discussions.

This is a lesser known technology that’s similar to traditional texting, whether through a mobile phone or an instant messenger app on a computer. With a regular text or instant message, someone types what they want to say, but it’s not sent until they click “send.” Then the entire message gets sent to the recipient. With real-time text, the text gets sent as it is being typed, errors and all. This provides a more organic and realistic method of communicating.

• A Day in the Life of a Deaf College Student
  Written from the perspective of an undergraduate student attendingon-campus classes, this article covers many struggles relatable to anonline graduate student.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
  ASHA exists to ensure everyone has access to effective communication. Theorganization provides various resources, including publications,continuing education, advocacy, and research.
• Association of Late-Deafened Adults (ALDA)A
  LDA helps individuals who once could hear. The assistance offered by ALDAincludes not only psychological support but also practical suggestions toaid in daily living and learning.
• Dead and Hard of Hearing Accommodations for Students
  While this page focuses on students at the University of Washington, itprovides a great overview of on-campus and off-campus resources that arepotentially available to hearing impaired students nationwide.
• Hearing Aid Know
  This website contains a variety of articles, blog posts, and informationguides to explain hearing aid technology and how hearing aids helpindividuals deal with hearing loss.
• Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA)
  The HLAA is the most prominent organization in the United States thatadvocates on behalf of individuals with hearing loss. The HLAA providesinformative services to help people make decisions on how to deal withtheir hearing loss and offers special programs to provide support to thehearing impaired in dealing with daily challenges.
• National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
  Like many other advocacy organizations, NAD works to improve the lives ofits constituents—deaf and deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Theapproach NAD takes is to protect and enhance the civil rights of those whoare deaf or hard of hearing.
• National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC)
  The NDC is run by the University of Texas at Austin. The resources are forstudents, parents, teachers, and school administrators. The NDC offerspersonal assistance to students and access to new data and research.
• Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID)
  RID is a professional organization that advocates on behalf ofinterpreters who use signed and spoken languages. RID works to enhance theethical and professional standards of the profession. The website hasresources for non-interpreters, including how to hire an interpreter.
• TDI
  This national nonprofit organization works to enhance public laws andpolicies related to information and communication technology. Even thoughTDI doesn’t specifically work on behalf of graduate students, muchof the technology it deals with applies to the online learning setting.
• Wrightslaw
  This comprehensive website provides content related to special education.A lot of the material relates to K-12, but there are plenty of resourcesfor those looking for a postsecondary degree who want to understand whatrights they have as a student with a legally recognized disability and howto exercise those rights.