Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
http://www.purdueexponent.com/index.php/module/Issue/action/Article/article_id/3978
Lee Anne Davidson does not feel any different than other students at Purdue, even though she faces many obstacles every day.
The sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts said she struggles with understanding strangers and professors during lecture, crossing the street and talking on the phone, all things most college students take for granted.
Davidson's hearing has been impaired since she was a young child. She received cochlear implants, needle-size devices which take over the function of a damaged inner ear (the most common form of deafness), when she was four years old. She was the youngest person in the state of Indiana to receive the implants at that time and she said in an e-mail that the youngest person today to receive implants was probably several months old. Davidson is amazed at how technology changes and improves each year.
"The cochlear implant is the best thing that has ever happened to me," she said, although she found it difficult to recognize some voices when she first adjusted to her implants.
Upon receiving the implants, she was able to identify sounds and hear voices, which was a huge improvement.
Although Davidson has experienced a variety of challenges in her life, she attributes her independence and strength to her parents, as well as her disability.
"With each challenge, I've learned that I can do almost everything as a normal hearing person. I used to think that being deaf limited my choices in life, but it didn't," she said. "It made more choices." �
Davidson said Purdue has done a great job at making sure she got everything she needed, as far as accommodating her with the necessary services during her classes.
Janie Fischbach, coordinator of auxiliary services in adaptive programs, meets with each deaf or hearing-impaired student every semester to make sure their individual needs are met.
"For every student, we customize accommodations," Fischbach said. "There is no standard formula. We keep in close touch with each student to evaluate how those accommodations are working and we change them if they aren't working. We take one class at a time."
Fischbach said many students are being mainstreamed in the deaf community, but "one size doesn't fit all."
"Students' means of communication should be maximized using a variety of techniques," she said. "This is kind of a universal principle and it certainly applies to students who are deaf or who are hard of hearing."
For students who use sign language exclusively, Purdue offers interpreters in American Sign Language or in other modes, depending on the person's preference. Purdue also uses Real Time Reporter Service, which provides students with reporters who sit next to the student and type the lecture verbatim onto a steno writer connected to a laptop computer.
Fischbach said another service offered is the TypeWell Education Transcription System, which does not minister notes verbatim, but does supply an extremely detailed transcription. This is a more robust form of electronic note-taking which eliminates superfluous language and just includes the critical information.
Although deaf and hard of hearing students do struggle with some aspects of their daily routine, Fischbach said they are just like every other college student.
"They do have access problems, but they have much better access than they did 10 years ago," she said. "They are able to adjust and excel and many have excelled. Life is never as simple (for a deaf person) as it is for students who have full hearing, but generally the deaf and hearing-impaired students do well at Purdue; that's been my experience in the 12 years I've worked here."
Lee Anne Davidson does not feel any different than other students at Purdue, even though she faces many obstacles every day.
The sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts said she struggles with understanding strangers and professors during lecture, crossing the street and talking on the phone, all things most college students take for granted.
Davidson's hearing has been impaired since she was a young child. She received cochlear implants, needle-size devices which take over the function of a damaged inner ear (the most common form of deafness), when she was four years old. She was the youngest person in the state of Indiana to receive the implants at that time and she said in an e-mail that the youngest person today to receive implants was probably several months old. Davidson is amazed at how technology changes and improves each year.
"The cochlear implant is the best thing that has ever happened to me," she said, although she found it difficult to recognize some voices when she first adjusted to her implants.
Upon receiving the implants, she was able to identify sounds and hear voices, which was a huge improvement.
Although Davidson has experienced a variety of challenges in her life, she attributes her independence and strength to her parents, as well as her disability.
"With each challenge, I've learned that I can do almost everything as a normal hearing person. I used to think that being deaf limited my choices in life, but it didn't," she said. "It made more choices." �
Davidson said Purdue has done a great job at making sure she got everything she needed, as far as accommodating her with the necessary services during her classes.
Janie Fischbach, coordinator of auxiliary services in adaptive programs, meets with each deaf or hearing-impaired student every semester to make sure their individual needs are met.
"For every student, we customize accommodations," Fischbach said. "There is no standard formula. We keep in close touch with each student to evaluate how those accommodations are working and we change them if they aren't working. We take one class at a time."
Fischbach said many students are being mainstreamed in the deaf community, but "one size doesn't fit all."
"Students' means of communication should be maximized using a variety of techniques," she said. "This is kind of a universal principle and it certainly applies to students who are deaf or who are hard of hearing."
For students who use sign language exclusively, Purdue offers interpreters in American Sign Language or in other modes, depending on the person's preference. Purdue also uses Real Time Reporter Service, which provides students with reporters who sit next to the student and type the lecture verbatim onto a steno writer connected to a laptop computer.
Fischbach said another service offered is the TypeWell Education Transcription System, which does not minister notes verbatim, but does supply an extremely detailed transcription. This is a more robust form of electronic note-taking which eliminates superfluous language and just includes the critical information.
Although deaf and hard of hearing students do struggle with some aspects of their daily routine, Fischbach said they are just like every other college student.
"They do have access problems, but they have much better access than they did 10 years ago," she said. "They are able to adjust and excel and many have excelled. Life is never as simple (for a deaf person) as it is for students who have full hearing, but generally the deaf and hearing-impaired students do well at Purdue; that's been my experience in the 12 years I've worked here."