Inklusion von Menschen mit Behinderungen ist zu einem der vordringlichen Ziele der Sozialpolitik der Europäischen Union und in der Russischen Föderation geworden, u. a. aufgrund der zunehmenden Zahl von Ländern, die die UN-BRK1 ratifizierten, sowie Herausforderungen wegen, die eine "alternde" Gesellschaft verursacht. Jedoch werden Menschen mit Hörbehinderung und deren spezielle Bedürfnisse im Vergleich zu anderen, eher sichtbaren Behinderungen, oft übersehen. Das zentrale Anliegen der vorliegenden Untersuchung ist es, die Mechanismen und Ergebnisse der sozialen Inklusion schwerhöriger Menschen in Russland und Deutschland näher zu betrachten und zu vergleichen, sowie mit empirisch belegten Befunden zur Forschung über schwerhörige Personen beizutragen. Der Forschungstand hierzu ist in den Disability Studies noch sehr lückenhaft. Eine Analyse der Sozial- und Behindertenpolitik in beiden Ländern sowie ein Vergleich der rechtlichen und institutionellen Maßnahmen als auch der Chancen bildet den Rahmen für eine empirische Analyse (Fragebogen, Interviews mit schwerhörigen Personen, NGOs und Experten). Die Einschätzung der politischen Maßnahmen und der Infrastrukturen folgt den konzeptionellen und normativen Bewertungsmaßstäben der Disability Studies. Die vergleichende Analyse konzentriert sich auf den Zugang schwerhöriger Menschen zu Bildung und Arbeitsmarkt, zu Wiedereingliederung, Information und Kommunikation – Bereiche welche für Inklusion und Teilhabe entscheidend sind. Die empirischen Erhebungen enthalten explorative, nicht-repräsentative Fragebögen-Untersuchungen unter a) 190 jungen Befragten, 18-35 Jahre alt (davon 136 aus Deutschland; 150 aus Russland) b) 110 älteren Befragten, 65 bzw. 60 Jahre alt — abhängig vom betreffenden Land — und älter (43 aus Deutschland; 67 aus Russland) und Experten-Interviews mit Schlüsselpersonen zum Thema (Forscher, politische Entscheidungsträger, medizinische und pädagogische Experten, schwerhörige NGO-Aktivisten); darüber hinaus Leitfaden-Interviews mit schwerhörigen Personen (11 in Deutschland, 16 in Russland). Übereinstimmungen und Abweichungen in den nationalen politischen Richtlinien werden diskutiert, Beispiele von positiven Praktiken in medizinischer, ausbildungsbezogener und beruflicher Rehabilitation und potentielle politische Maßnahmen werden vorgeschlagen. / Inclusion of people with disabilities has become one of the priorities of the social policy in the European Union and in the Russian Federation, in part, in connection with the increasing ratification of the UN CRPD worldwide and problems induced by the “ageing” society. However, people with hearing loss and their specific needs are often overlooked in comparison with more visible disabilities. The main purpose of this study is to look into and compare the mechanisms and results of social inclusion of hard of hearing people (HoH) in Russia and Germany and to contribute with empirically grounded findings to the research on hard of hearing people of which there is a lack in the disability research field. An analysis of the social and disability related policies in both countries and a comparison of the legal and institutional arrangements and opportunities provides the framework for the empirical analysis (questionnaire, interviews with HoH persons, NGOs and with experts). The appraisal of the policies and infrastructures is following the conceptual and normative benchmarks of the Disability studies. The comparative analysis is focused on access of HoH people to education and employment, to rehabilitation, information and communication – the fields critical to inclusion and participation. The empirical research comprises an explorative non-representative questionnaire survey with a) 190 young respondents aged 18-35 years (136 from Germany, 150 from Russia) b) 110 elderly respondents (65 or 60 years old and older; 43 from Germany, 67 from Russia), and expert interviews with the key persons in the field (researchers, political decision-makers, medical and educational professionals, hard of hearing NGO activists); furthermore, guided interviews with HoH people (N=11 in Germany, N=16 in Russia) were conducted. Commonalities and discrepancies in the national policy directions are discussed, examples of positive practices in medical, educational and professional rehabilitation and potential policy measures are suggested.

Reading development is supported by strong language skills, not least in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The work in the present thesis investigates reading development in DHH children who use sign language, attend Regional Special Needs Schools (RSNS) in Sweden and are learning to read. The primary aim of the present work was to investigate whether the reading skills of these children can be improved via computerized sign language based literacy training. Another aim was to investigate concurrent and longitudinal associations between skills in reading, sign language, and cognition in this population. The results suggest that sign language based literacy training may support development of word reading. In addition, awareness and manipulation of the sub-lexical structure of sign language seem to assist word reading, and imitation of familiar signs (i.e., vocabulary) may be associated with developing reading comprehension. The associations revealed between sign language skills and reading development support the notion that sign language skills provide a foundation for emerging reading skills in DHH signing children. In addition, the results also suggest that working memory and Theory of Mind (ToM) are related to reading comprehension in this population. Furthermore, the results indicate that sign language experience enhances the establishment of representations of manual gestures, and that progression in ToM seems to be typical, although delayed, in RSNS pupils. Working memory has a central role in integrating environmental stimuli and language-mediated representations, and thereby provides a platform for cross-modal language processing and multimodal language development. / En god språklig förmåga bidrar till god läsutveckling, inte minst hos döva och hörselskadade (D/H) barn. Studierna som ingår i avhandlingen undersöker läsutveckling hos D/H elever som går på teckenspråkiga specialskolor och som håller på att lära sig att läsa. Arbetets huvudsakliga syfte var att undersöka om deras läsförmåga kan förbättras via datoriserad teckenspråksbaserad lästräning. Ett annat syfte var att undersöka samtida och longitudinella samband mellan läsförmåga, teckenspråk, och kognition i samma population. Resultaten indikerar att teckenspråksbaserad lästräning kan bidra till ordläsningsutveckling. Vidare pekar resultaten på att medvetenhet om och manipulation av teckenspråkets sublexikala struktur stöttar läsförmågan och dessutom att imitation av kända tecken (i.e., vokabulär) var associerat med utvecklingen av barnens läsförståelse. Dessa fynd visar att teckenspråkskunskaper kan utgöra en grund för läsutveckling hos teckenspråkiga D/H elever. Resultaten indikerade även att arbetsminne och Theory of Mind (ToM) är relaterade till läsförståelse i denna grupp. Vid sidan av resultaten rörande läsutveckling, framkom också att teckenspråkserfarenhet leder till starkare etablering av representationer av manuella gester och vidare att barnens mentaliseringsförmåga (Theory of Mind) uppvisade en förväntad progression, om än försenad. En implikation av detta är att insatser som stöttar utveckling av teckenbaserade representationer och deras användning vid bearbetning av skrivet språk kan främja läsutveckling hos teckenspråkiga D/H elever. Arbetsminne föreslås genom sin roll i integration mellan inkommande stimuli och språkmedierade representationer fungera som en plattform för modalitetsöverskridande språkbearbetning och multimodal språkutveckling.

Sound localization is a vital aspect of hearing for safe navigation of everyday environments. It is also an important factor in speech intelligibility. This ability is facilitated by the interaural level difference (ILD) cue, which arises from binaural hearing: a sound will be more intense at the nearer ear than the farther. In a hearing-impaired listener, this binaural cue may not be available for use and localization may be diminished. While conventional, bilateral, wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) hearing aids distort the interaural level difference by independently altering sound intensities in each ear, wirelessly-linked devices have been suggested to benefit this task by matching amplification in order to preserve ILD. However, this technology has been shown to have varying degrees of success in aiding speech intelligibility and sound localization. As hearing impairment has wide-ranging adverse impacts to physical and mental health, social activity, and cognition, the task of localization improvement must be urgently addressed. Toward this end, neural modelling techniques are used to determine neural representations of ILD cues for linked and unlinked bilateral WDRC hearing aids. Findings suggest that wirelessly-linked WDRC is preferable over unlinked hearing aids or unaided, hearing-impaired listening, although parameters for optimal benefit are dependent on sound level, frequency content, and preceding sounds. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

South Africa has a dearth of deaf appropriate assistive resources – giving rise to deaf adolescents leaving school early and poor adult outcomes. These factors are negatively influenced by the interaction of other elements such as the inadequate cultural and social nurturing and lack of support. Approached from a bio-ecological model, to pro-actively address the support needed by deaf and hard-of-hearing persons to empower them to develop the capacity to withstand the challenges they have to endure, to stand up to and resist the negative ideas about what they are capable of. In this study, major risk factors were identified as communication deprivation and unpreparedness of parents to raise a deaf child appropriately where mediating factors were identified as social-emotional competence and deaf teaching assistants at South African Schools for the Deaf. The main findings of this study were that the need for early training of parents, access to Sign Language, deaf role models and social-emotional training in SA schools for the Deaf are proposed pathways to well-being. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)