Re: Hearing problem

[Steve Wonnell <wonnell@eta.pha.jhu.edu>]

Providing a notetaker, a sign language interpreter, and a tutor usually
requires little effort on the part of the instructor;  most colleges
have a special department that looks after these resources and the
handicapped student is expected to arrange for their use himself or
herself. 

Other suggestions put forth....learning sign language...writing more on
the board.....facing the student...certainly do intrude on one's teaching
style.  Learning sign language is certainly an extreme measure. 

The "handicapped" vary widely in aptitudes, abilities, and degree
of handicap.  Some do go to special institutions for the handicapped.
Others do attend special classes.  Some are mainstreamed, or
included in classes with "normal" students.  

I daresay that an intelligent, quick, and creative student who happens to
be deaf is better off in a normal college...Harvard for example...
than in one of the two schools for the deaf in this country, for
the same reasons that a bright student with normal hearing is better
off at Harvard than at the local community college.    

				--Steve Wonnell



On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Rick Tarara wrote:

> Does anyone else view many of the remedies that have been discussed as
> ultimately a strong 'intrusion' on one's teaching style and almost certainly
> a detriment to one's presentation to the rest of the class?  This seems to
> me to be the dilemma of these equal access requirements--they can easily
> turn out to have negative effects on the non-handicapped students.  Such
> seems to be the case in the so called 'Inclusion' techniques now so popular
> in public schools (popular--I believe--because they reduce the Special
> Education budget).  The distractions and restrictions on the 'regular'
> students seems to outweigh the good intentions of full inclusion of the
> handicapped.  It is also the case (crystal clear to me and many others) that
> often the handicapped are not as well served by such inclusion as they would
> be in special classes.  This, of course, is more true for the mentally and
> emotionally handicapped than for the physically handicapped, but certainly
> few schools and instructors are really skilled at providing for the blind or
> deaf and as this thread shows, the needed adjustments can really intrude on
> one's teaching style.
>
> Rick
>
> {The need of the one outweighs the good for the many?}


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Steven K. Wonnell  
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