About Disabilities
Hearing Disabilities
Hearing disabilities include a broad spectrum of experiences, from mild hearing loss to profound Deafness. Many Deaf and hard of hearing students are highly visual thinkers and skilled communicators who navigate the world with confidence and adaptability. Students communicate in many different ways, including through speech, sign language, lip reading, amplification devices or a combination, and each student’s experience is unique.
Hearing aids and cochlear implants can help, but they amplify sound rather than fully correcting hearing loss the way glasses correct vision.
Barriers to Access
In a college environment, you might find some of these things more challenging:
- Understanding conversational speech in one-on-one settings
- Understanding spoken language in group settings
- Accessing recorded audio or video content
- Detecting environmental sounds
- Following along when speakers turn away, cover their mouths or move around