- Allow front row seating.
- Avoid turning your back to the student when speaking.
- Avoid standing with your back to a window or other light source.
- Avoid pacing.
- Repeat questions or comments made by other students/persons in the classroom before answering.
- Provide a written list of “new” terms.
- Use visual aids whenever possible.
- Avoid oral testing.
- If an interpreter or other auxiliary aids have not been pre-arranged, please advise the student in writing to contact REACH/Disability Services in S207 to request needed accommodations as soon a possible.
- Not all hearing-impaired students read lips. Those who do may discern only a fraction of what is said.
- Do not assume that a student wearing a hearing aid can clearly understand what is being said.
- American Sign Language is the primary language of the deaf. Errors made in written English are frequently the result of grammatical differences in the structure of the two languages.
- Most deaf/hearing-impaired people who do not speak choose not to because they believe their speech will not be readily understood.
- It is nearly impossible for a person with a hearing impairment to take notes, read lips, or watch an interpreter simultaneously. Please assist the student in finding a volunteer note taker.
Please refer such students to the Office of Disability Services in S207 (857-7286).
Policy on Hearing-Impaired Students
On October 15, 1989, Virginia Western Community College adopted a policy consistent with the requirements of 34 C.F.R. Section 104.44(d) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) on auxiliary aids that assures that no student with a hearing impairment is denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in, or otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program which the College operates or sponsors and for which the student is eligible, because of the absence of auxiliary aids.
This policy acknowledges the College’s responsibility to reasonably provide auxiliary aids to the College’s students who are hearing-impaired, and will provide such aids, including sign language interpreters, to hearing impaired-students, consistent with the requirements of 34 C. F. R. Section 104.44(d), regardless of whether the student is or may be eligible to receive such aids from outside sources. Nothing in this policy prohibits the College from pursuing or assisting the student to pursue the acquisition of such aids from other sources. Unless and until the auxiliary aids are provided by other sources, however, the College will reasonably provide such aids as are necessary to assure that hearing-impaired students can fully participate in the College’s programs.
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