Challenge

Your classroom is one of those that would appear to an infrequent observer to be chaotic, but you like it that way. The free flow of ideas is important in meeting the goals of your course. However, you know that deaf and hard-of-hearing students will have difficulty participating. An interpreter or captionist signals that he/she is unable to keep up with the discussion.

Strategies

A communication free-for-all will not work with deaf and hard-of-hearing students; it will limit their participation in classroom activities. An interpreter (or captionist) can interpret (or type) only one comment at a time.

We encourage you to establish rules for classroom communication, whether written and distributed on the first day or communicated as situations arise. It’s important that students understand you have a class in which everyone has access to all of the same information.

Your example in this regard becomes the model that students will follow. If you are considerate of your students’ educational needs, other students in your class will follow your lead.

Establish clear rules of interaction for the class as a whole. In discussion-based classes:

• It is imperative that you control the flow of the discussion and insist on turn-taking.

• When posing questions to the class for their response, pause to allow for the processing delay inherent with interpreting or captioning. This will afford deaf and hard-of-hearing students with the opportunity to participate.

• Require students asking questions to raise their hands, and to keep their hand raised after you have recognized them until the deaf and hard-of-hearing students (or interpreter or captionist if present), have recognized who is speaking. Yes, this is awkward, so be certain to begin this process on the first day of class and maintain the process throughout the term. Make it a daily classroom habit.

• Include communications rules in your course syllabus. This elevates their importance for all students, and indicates your serious intentions to include all students in classroom communications.