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This study used survey methodology to investigate the experience of acquiring assistive technology, from learning about products, to purchasing and paying for them, to evaluating how well they perform. It examined both the challenges faced and the factors that may help people acquire products. The participants were 251 adults with vision and hearing impairments, recruited from across Canada. The results revealed that the high cost of products and lack of funding for assistive technology were the main barriers faced by respondents. Intermediaries, such as community organizations and health care providers, were found to be important facilitators of access to assistive technology. Financial support to cover product costs increased respondents’ access to higher cost items. While the majority of respondents were quite or very satisfied with their products, hearing product consumers were less satisfied than vision product consumers, yet were likely to have paid more for their products.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2002. / The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of primary school educators concerning inclusive education for learners with hearing impairments. The orientation to the study is followed by a chapter to explain the design of the research, substantiating the choice of format, methods of data collection and analysis. A qualitative research method was chosen on account of its explorative, descriptive and contextual nature. Data was collected by means of interviews with mainstream educators with learning impaired learners in their classrooms. This was followed by a literature review to compare and complement the qualitative data analysis. The results from the qualitative research showed that the black primary school educators generally have negative perceptions of the inclusion of hearing impaired learners. The challenge facing many mainstream educators is that they have not been trained to cope with the diversity of learners now entering school. They have, for example, not been trained to meet the special educational needs of hearing impaired learners. Educators often feel that they are obliged to implement policies, such as inclusion of all learners, about which they were not consulted. They do not have a clear understanding of the demands of changes they must implement and lack adequate time to prepare for the implementation. Many mainstream educators lack confidence in their own abilities to teach learners with diverse needs. They fear failure, and are concerned about the educational needs of the "normal" learners in the inclusive classroom. Educators' perceptions are also influenced by the availability of sufficient support and resources and the amount of time required of the educator to address the special educational needs of the diversity of learners. Lack of knowledge and experience of exceptional children, such as the hearing impaired have a negative influence on educators' perceptions of mainstreaming. The study concludes with the findings from the qualitative research and the literature review and the following recommendations were made: • In-service and pre-service training courses in special education must be offered at all educator training institutions. • The development of both the curriculum and the school must include a variety of strategies to facilitate the learning and teaching of all learners.

The purpose of this study was to explain the ways in which parents of children with hearing impairments access counseling services. In order to focus attention on these issues, a research question and objectives were formulated: In what ways did parents of children with hearing impairments in Zimbabwe access counseling services during the period 1999 to 2000? Five distinct but related major issues, in relation to parents of children with hearing impairments accessing counseling services in Zimbabwe during the period 1999 to 2000 emerged. This came from observation of practice, personal experiences, and discussions with parents. The objectives of the study were thus formulated as follows: · to find out who counseled parents of children with hearing impairments. · to investigate whether parents who received or did not receive counseling were aware of organizations that offered guidance and counseling. · to find out parents’ perceptions on whether or not counseling helped them to accept and cope with their children. · to establish the qualifications of the counselors who counseled parents of children with hearing impairments. · to explore recommendations by parents on ways in which counseling can be made more accessible in Zimbabwe. A pilot study was conducted in which two questionnaires that covered the research question and the five objectives were constructed and refined. Subsequently a survey was carried out on a sample of 300 parents of children with hearing impairments and 28 counseling service organizations. The questionnaires sought to find out: who counseled parents of children with hearing impairments, their views about the counseling they received, whether they were able to accept and cope with their children after counseling and their views on how counseling could be made more accessible. The questionnaire to service organizations sought to establish the qualifications of their counselors, the needs of parents of children with hearing impairments and their views on what they thought could be done to help parents access counseling services. Female and male parents were compared in terms of their sources of counseling, acceptance and coping with children of different genders and different age groups. Quantitative data on organizations and parents’ responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative analysis was used to analyze data from open-ended questions collected from parents of children with hearing impairments. Results from the study indicate that the majority of the parents received counseling from special schools, followed by individuals, then hospitals, churches, registered counseling organizations and friends. Slightly more than half of the parents were aware of registered organizations that offer counseling services. Most parents believed that counseling helped them and were able to cope with their children after counseling. The majority of the counselors who counseled parents of children with hearing impairments were not qualified. Most parents indicated that they faced difficulties in communication, financial constraints, societal attitude, lack of transport and lack of skills to teach children basic living skills. Parents suggested the use of parent support groups, workshops and advertisements as means of making counseling services more accessible. / Thesis (PhD (Learning Support, Guidance and Counceling))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

This study was an investigation of the relationship between the self-concepts of hearing-impaired children and the self-concepts of normal hearing children. Sixty-four hearing-impaired children and nineteen normal hearing children were given the Primary Self- Concept Inventory, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and were rated by a teacher using the Bristol Social Adjustment Guide. The differences between means were analyzed and tested for significance. It was concluded that there is no difference between the self concept of the hearing-impaired child and the self-concept of the normal hearing child. It was further concluded that the instruments currently available for measuring self-concept are poor and inadequate. Further research on the self-concept of the hearing impaired child was recommended.

This thesis deals with possibilities of education of adults with hearing impairment in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part of the thesis deals in the first chapter with the basic terminology of the branch. The second chapter focuses on communication of persons with hearing disabilities. The third chapter is devoted to problems of adult education, lifelong learning, tertiary education and also brings the greatest possible comprehensive list of organizations dealing with this issue and the current offer of education. The final chapter is devoted to the question of quality of life and the related job opportunities for these individuals. The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the current educational opportunities of persons with hearing disabilities. Partial objectives of this thesis is to analyze the sufficiency of existing supply of educational possibilities, the level of awareness of people with hearing disabilities about this offer and satisfaction with the applicability of the knowledge thus acquired in the labor market. The practical part of this thesis focuses on the evaluation of the survey, which was carried out in connection with completing of this thesis, and its conclusion focuses on comments on the results of the survey. The work should serve especially to the summary...

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Each live organism is made to adapt to the constantly changing environment. The success of child’s integration into society, his conduct in society depends on the family and school. Frequently, excessive care by their parents prevents a disabled child from developing independency skills. One of the most important tasks for the school is to prepare an individual for independent life and seek his integration into society. The issue of developing independency of a disabled individual has not been studied in detailed yet. The object of this study is independency of the pupils with hearing impairments. The paper contains an analysis of the reference sources and findings of the study, which disclose the peculiarities of developing independency of the deaf and hard of hearing pupils during technology classes. The respondents were surveyed by test-interview methods and the data obtained were processed with the help of SPSS software. When summarizing the academic, professional and methodical literature, a model of the pupils’ independency was drafted by dividing independency into three groups of its manifestation (inquisitiveness, initiative and organization skills) and by defining technological skills by three types of skills ( planning, information collection and use, technology activities). Analysis of individual programs revealed that the teachers of technologies devote attention to the development of the pupils’ independency at the schools for deaf and heard to hear students... [to full text]

AbstractWesterlund, Charlotta (2011) Inkludering- exkludering; Hur elever med hörselnedsättningar upplevt sin skolgång (inclusion- exclusion; How students with hearing loss experienced their School time). Skolutveckling och ledarskap, lärande och samhälle, Malmö högskola.Att vara hörselskadad betyder ofta att den sociala kommunikationen och samvaron med andra människor påverkas. Många är beroende av tekniska hjälpmedel, så som hörapparater och hörselslingor, för att kunna följa med i samtal och för att kunna känna sig delaktiga. Att få tillgång till rätt hjälpmedel är varje landstingsinvånares och elevs rätt. Är detta tillräckligt för att eleven ska känna sig inkluderad i skolans verksamheter? Hur har elever med hörselnedsättning upplevt sin egen grundskoletid, utifrån ett inkluderande perspektiv? Kan man vara inkluderad och ändå känna sig exkluderad? Är det tillräckligt att få gå i samma klass som ”hörande” elever för att känna sig inkluderad?Detta är en undersökning med kvalitativ ansats, som består av tre djupgående intervjuer och 20 öppna frågeformulär, om elevers egna erfarenheter och tankar kring sin grundskoletid. Syftet med undersökningen är att få en ökad kunskap om och en inblick i, elevernas egna upplevelser av delaktighet under sin skolgång, vare sig man gått i specialskola eller haft sin undervisning bland ”hörande” klasskamrater.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att många av de elever som går på skolor tillsammans med hörande klasskamrater, har svårt att känna sig inkluderade. I hörselklasskolor känner sig eleverna mer inkluderade, medan de på fritiden ofta känner sig ensamma, då avstånden till klasskompisar är långa. De spontana, sociala kontakterna blir lidande.Nyckelord: Hörselskador, skolformer, sociala relationer, stigmatisering, stämplingsteori / Westerlund, Charlotta (2011) Inclusion- exclusion; How students with hearing loss experienced their school time (Hur elever med hörselnedsättningar upplevt sin skolgång). Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärande och samhälle, Malmö högskola.To have a hearing impairment often means that the social communication and togetherness with other people affects. Many are depended on technical aids, such as hearing aids and hearing loops, to be able to follow conversations and to be able to feel involved. It is every student and county inhabitants right to have access to aids. Is this enough for the student to feel involved in school activities? How have students with hearing loss experienced their own school time out of an including perspective? Can a person be included and still feel excluded? Is it enough to attend a class with “hearing” students, to feel included?This is a qualitative study, which contains three deep interviews and twenty open questionnaires, about students own experiences and thoughts about their school time. The purpose of the study, have been to increase knowledge and insight in students experiences of involvement during their school time, whether they went to special schools or not.The results of the study, shows that many students with hearing loss, don’t feel included in community schools with hearing classmates. In special schools the students with hearing loss feels included but during their spare time, they often feels alone, because their classmates lives far away and the spontaneous social contacts decreases.

Hearing impairments are a sensitive component of our society. Lots of people are affected by them and considering this aspect in imagining and designing how the future will sound like is important. In this research project, a suggestion on a soundscape design tool to be used and manipulated by people affected by hearing disabilities is proposed. Together with this, it will be described as well how to implement and define a user interface with the scope of managing and manipulating these soundscapes. This project also faces the task of creating a setup oriented towards a museum setting: this carries with itself several variables to be kept in account, such as an unpredictable and quite broad users' range, and a special consideration for the lower-age range users. These have been found to be the most attending the museum environment, as far as it concerns Tekniska Museet. A three-phase experiment was then carried out. It involved a class of hearing-impaired pre-teenagers, the visitors of Tekniska and other hearing-impaired testers. Both qualitative and quantitative data about the interaction with the interface and the perceptual experience with the soundscapes were collected. The final assessments are that a focus on a playful aspect and the simplicity of shapes was the key for a suitable interface design focused on children, and that the contribution of the hearing impaired is relevant, at least in the later stage of the soundscape design process. / Hörselskador är en känslig del av vårt samhälle. Många människor påverkas av dem och det är viktigt att tänka på den aspekten då man föreställer sig och designar hur framtiden ska låta. Inom det här forskningsprojektet ska ett förslag på ett ljudlandskapsdesign-vektyg, ämnat att användas och hanteras av människor påverkade av hörselskador, framföras. Tillsammans med detta så beskrivs också hur ett användargränssnitt, med omfattningen att hantera och manipulera dessa ljudlandskap, fastställdes och implementerades inom systemet. Det här projektet möter dessutom utmaningen av att skapa ett system byggt för en museiutställning. Med detta tillkommer några variabler som måste hållas i åtanke, som en oförutsägbar och ganska bred användarskara. Speciellt stor omtanke läggs dock på yngre användare, som visade sig vara majoriteten av besökarna hos museet i fråga, nämligen Tekniska Museet. Ett experiment bestående av tre faser utförs, bestående av en skolklass av hörselskadade elever i tidiga tonårsåldern, Tekniska Museets besökare samt andra hörselskadade användare. Efter en insamling av både kvalitativa och kvantitativa data på interaktionen med gränssnittet samt den perceptuella upplevelsen av ljudlandskapen, dras slutsatsen att ett fokus på lekfullt utseende och enkelhet inom formerna är nyckeln för en lämplig gränssnitsdesign som har i åtanke barnens deltagande. Dessutom dras även slutsatsen att bidraget av hörselskadade individer är relevant, åtminstone i senare skeden av ljudlandskapsdesign-processen.