Sensory Disability
When the disability is not understood or recognized.Sometimes the person that has the disability doesn't realize that there maybe anything wrong,everything is normal from there point of view.Could this cause them to act out or become angry because they are misunderstood? Yes I think so.
In what way can a misconception about students who are hard of hearing, deaf, blind, or have limited vision cause injustice? Explain.
Karen,
I'll bet you are a terrific instructor! What you describe here is a student-centered approach that pulls the best out of a student -- any student (disabled or not). I hope your students appreciate you!
Dr. Jane Jarrow
I have had an opportunity to instruct a deaf student for the first time in my career. When speaking to others about my new learning experience, I hear how others may perceive my "disabled" student. The student also has ADD. That in itself has preconceived notions on how the student will react to new situations. My response has been to actively coordinate with the ESL tutor AND the student to ask what I can do to clarify and aid in their learning. Knowing each student, sensory diabled or not, may absorb information in a different way, my job is to assist them in fair and reasonable manner.
Benson,
The bottom line is that disability is neither a barrier to success, nor a promise of it. People with disability come in the same range of abilities as do others. And we hope that they will all be able to bring the right skills to bear on the problems at hand.
Dr. Jane Jarrow
I also have had the pleasure to wittness how the absence of one sense does not disable a person. In fact some times I would say it enables them. I have had deaf students that could comprehend and practice skills better than some hearing enabled people.
David,
I couldn't agree more. I had the same experience with deaf/hard of hearing students that you did. Having them in class was a reminder to me to slow down, to clarify, to check for understanding in a way that I tended to simply ASSUME when there was no one there whom I knew might be having communication issues. It also reinforces something we remind folks of all the time. Good teaching for students with disabilities is really just good teaching. Students with disabilities may NEED that extra attention to detail, but all students profit from it.
Dr. Jane Jarrow
We have had many hard of hearing/deaf students at our school. It has been my pleasure to teach them because without exception they were always among the best students in the class. It would be a tragedy to assume that because a person cant hear well or at all that they cant learn. I will tell you that it is even helpful to the instructor to have hearing impaired students in the class. It always helps me keep an appropriate pace for the whole class and it has many times helped me drive home an important point to the whole class. Just because you stop to answer a question from the hearing impaired student dont think that other students didnt have the same question.
Robb,
It sounds as though you speak from personal experience. You are right. Expectations lead to stereotyping, and stereotyping leads to limited options and opportunities. Our job is to see that doesn't happen.
Dr. Jane Jarrow
It is all to easy for an instructor to view a student with sensory limitations as "dumb" or incompetent. All too often the speech pattern of a hearing impaired person is regarded as someone who is unintelligent or mentally challenged. This misconception can result in an attitude from the instructor or others in the classroom and may limit interaction with the impaired student.
Prejudgement of an impaired individuals abilities may also limit learning opportunities in the classroom, segregating that student from activities that he/she may be very competent to participate in.
Jason,
Wow... those are great examples, Jason. I have a friend who used to give a presentation called "Of Blind Mechanics and Hemophiliac Industrial Arts Teachers I Have Known." He said, in truth, he had only known one of each, but it was enough to teach him to "never say never."
Dr. Jane Jarrow
I second Alan's comment. I have also got to witness totally deaf students accomplish amazing diagnosing goals with primarily their sense of touch and sight. We even had an individual that is totally blind, yet is also a crew chief of a drag racing team come to our school a couple of times to speak and help students realize that a disability doesn't automatically mean that success isn't an option.
Alan,
Sounds like you have just the right attitude to keep an open mind -- and an open classroom -- where all students have the chance to succeed (or not) based on their skills, rather than the perception of others. Good for you!
Dr. Jane Jarrow
People without disabilities are sometimes "in the dark" as to what a person with a disability can accomplish. They feel if the person can't hear or be blind, etc., this person cannot have a productive life. People have a way of stereotyping others away and justifying in their minds disabled people can't do anything. I was guilty of that at one time until I met people with challenges and watched them go. I have a totally deaf student that does engine diagnosis based solely on feel and he is amazing to watch. We don't realize that people without one of the senses have the ability to train the other senses to make themselves able to be productive. We just have to give them the chance.
James,
That's a wonderful example of how stereotyping comes about when the student has a known disability -- and why so many students with disabilities are hesitant to have others know! In such other-than-academic issues, it may be that the best thing the instructor can do is to lead by example. If YOU treat the student as a fully functioning member of the class, and don't differentiate in your treatment of that student, hopefully others will take their cue from you.
Dr. Jane Jarrow
A hearing student who doesn't socialize with others in the class may be seen as just shy or insecure. In our class, a deaf student who didn't use the professional interpreter for chit chat was more often seen as antisocial. The disability was unjustly assumed to be the cause of the behavior. The deaf student is, of course, just as likely to be shy or insecure as anyone else.
Russell,
I had a good friend, deaf since birth, who had a brilliant mind and an avid interest in philosophy. He taught himself French (that is, learned how to read it without formal instruction) so that he could read Camus in the original form. I was regularly in awe of his ability, and regularly found myself talking with my back to him (which he couldn't hear!) because it was so easy to forget that he was deaf! You are right. Sensory disability denotes a difficulty in how information gets into the system, now what gets done with it when it gets there!
Dr. Jane Jarrow
Sometimes this misconception could lead the instructor or classmates assume the student with a sensory disability is not as smart or capable as other students in the class. I had the pleasure of teaching a deaf student. I say a pleasure because she was one of the most gifted and dedicated student I've ever had in a class. Our university provided an interpreter who signed. The student spoke well, even though she had been deaf since birth. We arranged for both the signer and the student to sit in the front row and at the best angle so the interpreter to sign and the student to read my lips. I used a lot of visulas, such as powerpoints, to help emphasize the topics we were covering in each class period.
Dr. Faulk
Mark,
I was always taught that we lead by example. So long as you continue to treat students with disabilities as students first -- capable students -- sooner or later the other students will come around.
Dr. Jane Jarrow
Jane, having worked as disability coordinator at a local college, I am very familiar with the stereotypes which can be cast towards those with all those types of disabilities and special needs, especially when accomodations are allowed. With respect to those with various sensory impairments, some of the classroom modifications can falsely contribute to some peers' views that the affected student is somehow getting an unfair advantage when certain interventions are allowed, whether it be in the form of a interpreter, extra time for testing, audio books, screen reader software, etc. I found myself regularly having to explain to other students that these accomodations did NOT, in fact, give the particular student an advantage, but simply was allowed in an effort to "level the playing field"...some bought this and others did not.
