Name of teaching material
Hearing Loss Simulation (Experiencing social barriers caused by hearing impairment) self-made product
Japanese Page URL
*The description appears by hovering the cursor over the image.
| Target |
* Middle school, high school and university students and adults having hearing impairment * Middle school, high school and university students and adults with no hearing impairment * Teachers engaged in education for children and students with hearing impairment * Faculty of educational institute accepting children and/or students with hearing impairment * Members of firms having employee(s) with hearing impairment |
|---|---|
| Disability category | deaf and hard of hearing |
| Teaching units / Applicable scenes | activities for independent living other |
| Specific purposes |
For people with hearing impairment: * To deepen their understanding on their own disability and cultivate the abilities to independently ask for the necessary supports upon studying, acting or/and working with people having no hearing impairment For people without hearing impairment: * To deepen their understanding on social barriers accompanying hearing impairment and find clues to search for necessary and appropriate support for each situation |
| Considerations for disability characteristics | For people with hearing impairment, do not much emphasize barriers accompanying hearing loss to prevent them from lowering their self-esteem. Guide them to think “what measures can reduce social barriers” and “what explanation help people understand hearing impairment.” |
| Expected effects and results |
Hearing loss simulation helps people understand social barriers for people with hearing impairment, which are difficult to notice. In concrete terms, it helps people understand what described below. By experiencing speech reading * It is difficult to understand speech just from the shape of the lips. * People with hearing impairment understand speech by also utilizing facial expressions of the speaker, their own knowledge, background information (premises) of the content of the speech, context, imagination, etc. * Extraordinary concentration power and energy are needed to communicate by speech reading. By experiencing doing activities by following teacher’s instructions By experiencing the role of a person with hearing impairment, the person notices: * It becomes difficult to find out what are going on because of hearing difficulties, * It becomes difficult to know the topic of conversation and information about what to do, which gives the feeling being left out, * It becomes necessary to make judgments based on surrounding conditions and finding keywords, but uneasiness always persists about whether they are correct or wrong, and * It is quite difficult to ask a nearby person in practice although asking is likely to be a good solution. The hearing loss simulation helps people with no hearing impairment experience difficulties and social barriers confronted by people with hearing impairment and think about concrete means for supporting them. For people with hearing impairment, the simulation helps them recognize their own disabilities by experiencing social barriers accompanying hearing impairment. They also experience the needs of actively asking for supports necessary at each situation. |
| How to use |
1) Equipment: Headphones, small portable music players (with weight noise recorded) 2) One out of every 7 or 8 people wear the equipment and plays the role of a person with hearing impairment. 3) The one playing the role of a person with hearing impairment becomes “incapable of hearing” sounds and speech because he or she is constantly exposed to the noise from the music player through the headphones. For safety (to protect their ears from the noise), they are also to wear earplugs underneath the headphones. 4) The one playing the role of a person with hearing impairment changes after each task so that all participants experience the role. 5) Tasks are to be proceeded according to slides. After each task, the one playing the role of a person with hearing impairment is to talk about how he or she felt so as to share information about what problem(s) he or she faced by the incapability of hearing and adverse psychological effects. 6) The equipment is not used for experiencing speech reading. 7) For students with hearing impairment, groups of pseudo-non-impaired people are created by informing the contents of the task in advance. |
| Related teaching materials and information |
References (Methods of the hearing loss simulation are available.) * SUZUKI Makiko, AKISHIMA Yasunori, SUZUKI Hatsumi, TAKADA Fumiko, ITO Yasuo (2013): Promoting understanding on hearing impairment: Simulation program of hearing loss for deaf students for post-graduation support (in Japanese), Auditory Disorders, Vol. 68, November 2013 * SUZUKI Makiko (2014): Simulation program of hearing loss for deaf students: In relation to the awareness of their hearing loss (in Japanese), Bulletin of Special Needs Education Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Vol. 8, Practices and Studies (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/56657599.pdf) |
| Useful for other students | The simulation can also be used for deepening the understanding of disabilities of students who feel difficulties in auditory perception. |
- Informant SUZUKI Makiko (Affiliation: High School division, Special Needs Education School for the Deaf, University of Tsukuba) TAKADA Fumiko (Former affiliation: High School division, Special Needs Education School for the Deaf, University of Tsukuba → Current af
- Keywords hearing loss simulation, recognition of disability, understanding disabilities
- Translator Yuko Makuuchi
- Created 2023-05-30 21:17:21
- Updated 2023-05-30 21:17:21