Remote Learning During the Pandemic for Children with Hearing Loss

By Andrea Dunn, Erin C. Schafer, and Alexandra Lavi

This article is a part of the January/February 2021, Volume 33, Number 1, Audiology Today issue.

Many students with hearing loss receive instructional accommodations, curricular modifications, and school-related hearing technology as outlined in their Section 504 or individualized education plans (IEPs). Historically, however, these plans did not account for a student’s online learning needs. As a result, school personnel are struggling to ensure equal access to education across varied learning environments during the pandemic for students with hearing loss.

Safety measures intended to reduce COVID-19 transmission inadvertently created new educational challenges for students with hearing loss. Some examples include the loss of visual cues and auditory-signal attenuation from face masks, reduced access to sign language interpreters, and lack of captioning or transcripts for online lectures or meetings (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2020; Goldin, Weinstein, and Shiman, 2020; National Association of the Deaf, 2020; Rudge, Sonneveldt, and Moog Brooks, 2020; Atcherson, Finley, McDowell, and Watson, 2020).

To quantify these and other recent educational challenges, a school-based pilot study was conducted to identify the frequency of various learning situations (i.e., remote virtual, in person, blended), document the accessibility of course content and technology, and quantify hearing issues associated with safety measures and technology use. Identifying current educational challenges will enable audiologists, teachers of students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, and other school personnel to improve educational access, learning, and engagement for students with hearing loss.