Susan is a special education administrator in a large public school system. Susan has become hard of hearing (a moderate hearing loss) in both ears and wears behind-the-ear hearing aids (BTEs). Because her hearing loss has been so gradual, her speech and speech reading skills are good. Most of the time, Susan does not use an interpreter because her facility at using her residual hearing abilities, observing facial expressions, watching gestures, and attending to other environmental cues. If there happens to be an interpreter in the meeting, she will occasionally use this person to check to make sure she understood what the speaker said. If no interpreter is present, she asks questions to clarify anything she did not understand. Susan indicates that, in general, she has little difficulty with face-to-face conversations.

Susan's problems are evident when communication is not face-to-face (i.e., when she cannot see the person speaking to her). Office mates report that they will frequently forget and call to Susan when they want to show her something. When the person realizes that Susan has not heard them, they go to her office. When Susan is in noisy environments, she reports that it is difficult to understand people because her residual hearing cannot filter out the voice from the background. Susan often jokes that she feels like she is on a merry-go-round because she has to turn so often to visually locate the speaker. Also, rooms with hard surfaces (no rugs. curtains, or sound deadening ceilings are difficult for Susan. She hears the echo from voices and environmental sounds. It is difficult for her to locate the sound source. The phone in her office is particularly difficult. Her hearing is bad enough that she cannot make out what a person says. She often needs to have the person repeat the message or depend on someone else to relay the message to her. This posed one particularly difficult situation when dealing with confidential information about one of her office staff members. The last area that causes Susan difficulty is warning signals. All the warning signals (fire alarms, computer errors, etc.) are auditory. Susan states that she cannot hear them and, in one instance, was the only person in a building that had been evacuated for a fire drill.

Task:

Read the case study about Susan-then from your readings and explorations from this week (and last) discuss the following:

What access barriers does Susan face in performing her job with her current abilities and methods?

• In noisy environments, it is hard for Susan to discriminate between background noise and the speaker.
• In rooms with hard surfaces (no rugs. curtains, or sound deadening ceilings, she hears the echo from voices and environmental sounds and therefore it is difficult for her to locate the sound source.
• Since all the warning signals (fire alarms, computer errors, etc.) are auditory, her office is not a safe working environment for her.

How could Susan's environment be modified to allow her to participate in the meetings, conduct phone conversations, and recognize warning signals?

• A TTY or TDD (Telecommunications for the Deaf) machine can be attached to Susan's phone to turn the auditory signal into a visual print-out. Messanger or fax are other alternatives for Susan to communicate with her colleagues.
• Susan can use a hearing aid that amplifies sounds.
• Warning signals in Susan's office can be made both auditory(sound) and visual (flashing light).

What specific types of AT devices may be beneficial to Susan? (you should use information from the readings and other information you gather from web searches).

• TTY or TDD machine
• Amplification Devices (Amplified Headsets, Modular Amplifiers, Portable Amplifiers)