Deafness and Hearing Loss
Working with students who are deaf or have a hearing loss.
Deaf Awareness Information Guide
This guide provides a helpful context for the implementation of adjustments relating to individual students.
Deaf Awareness Training for staff
The Disability and Learning Support Service provides training on access and support for students who are deaf or have a hearing loss. These sessions are advertise and booked via the Events Chanel in MyEd. The general content of the training provides detail on the issues and resources covered in the Deaf Awareness Information Guide, and includes feedback from students themselves. We welcome requests to provide bespoke sessions for individual staff teams working with (or about to work with) specific students. Contact us at disability.service@ed.ac.uk
Making teaching more accessible
Group discussions
Participating in group discussions is notoriously challenging for people who are deaf or have a hearing loss. This guide provides practical advice on how to make full participation more possible in both face-to-face and online sessions.
Lectures
Clear, accessible speech and good audio will make it more possible for students with hearing loss to follow content, as well as increasing the accuracy of any auto-captions. These guides give practical advice on how to make spoken content more accessible.
Strategies where face coverings are required
Most people who are deaf or have a hearing loss rely on lipreading to varying degrees. It’s not possible to lipread a speaker who is wearing a face covering. This guidance is for situations where use of face coverings is required or preferred. It gives practical advice on making your spoken communication more accessible.
British Sign Language
This brief overview gives some basic facts about BSL as a language and a link to the University of Edinburgh BSL Plan.
Working with a BSL/English interpreter
This guide give practical advice on working with BSL/English interpreters in classroom situations.
BSL Awareness Training for staff
British Sign Language (BSL) awareness training is available to all staff looking to support colleagues, improve the accessibility of their services, or just to learn more about Deaf culture. Sessions can be booked through MyEd events.