Y’all,
I have made the aquaintance of a young lady who is in my Spanish class. This is a young lady who is hearing impaired. I know she is hearing impaired because I noticed she wears a hearing aid (logical deduction there, huh?), her speech is very good though. Today, this young lady waited for me outside my math class (you know, close to the end of the class). We were both orginally in this class, so I guess she knew where to find me, eh? She wanted to ask me of what all our spanish professor went over for this test review we had. I do not know, to play devil’s advocate, if this young lady studies or not; but she cannot comprehend folks speaking unless you look her in the eye and sit right towards her and I really think that she is having trouble in Spanish because of that. I know for sure that she reads lips and I know for sure that if you turn (like when the professor turns to write on the board or what have you) then she cannot hear you becasue she cannot read your lips. I am sorry for not making more sense with that, but I figure y’all get the general idea?
Anywhoo…I told her the page numbers and everything that the professor went over for spanish and I had to speak really slowly. I naturally speak slowly because I still have a slight slur and I live in the south…but I had to speak really, really slowly for this young lady and I painstakingly wrote down what all the professor went over really anal retentive like because I knew darn well this young lady did not hear the professor say turn to page 320 or anything.
Where I go to University, the offices of student disabilites really sucks, and this I know from deep personal experience of the ninth magnitude.
And, the end of this summer semester is August 13th. I know that this young lady would need a doctors note stating she is hearing impaired, because this is the offices of student disabilites that makes the morbidly obese obtain doctor’s notes stating they are too obese to fit in the really small desks and need to have a table and chair put in the classroom. True story, I had someone tell me that at the city bus stop a while back.
I need advice on how to speak with this young lady about her hearing impairment and about the offices of student disabilites, but I do not want to be rude. I also, do not want to see this young lady flunk out because she is very sweet and engaging.
thank you for your response
Victoria, I meant sweet and engaging by virtue of the fact that this young lady is just that. I am sorry for sounding stupid, but in the south, it is really hot and humid this time of year and a lot of the classrooms at my university do not have the a/c on you have to open the window and open the door to let the a/c from the hallway waft through…this puts a lot of students in very bad moods and whatnot, except for this one young lady…I find that sort of thing engaging I guess and I did not mean that in a patronising sense or anything. Scads of students who flunked courses go to my university during the summer also and they are not happy to be there, to see someone who is happy to be at university in the heat and everything else makes me think that person is sweet and engaging.I just feel that it would be a shame for someone who (in my opinion) likesgetting their schooling to not have the proper resources available to them to obtain that schooling. Makes no difference to me how the person dresses or any of that nonsense. As a practising Quaker I really have it ingrained in my skull not to view people in an intolerant fashion; I just think this kid is sweet is all. If she were satan incarnate I would still try to figure out a way to help her also.
I am going to speak with her tommorrow and give her the number to the offices of student disabilites. I think they do suck but I am not going to tell her that (I was called an irrational minded lady after I asked a question pertaining to learning linear equations, been told that the dyscalculia I have had since 1984 is not a real l.d. and that I am a liar because my ability to read and write surpasses my ability to do math, the offices of student disabilites where I am at is in a minimal brain disfunction time warp from 1978 or something, so I think they suck)
But I digress…
I assume that if someone is obviously hearing impaired they will be able to figure out what the student needs, and I am going to tell her to dress in her nicest clothes when she goes in for an “intake session” because folks are really proviencial minded here also, Victoria. This young lady is 18 years old and moved to the city where the university is at from the hills of Tennessee, where I assume she got some top notch schooling because her speech is spot on and her ability to read lips is spot on also.
[quote]I have rather strong feelings on this issue being a non-traditional sort of person myself and having been refused reasonable services because I didn’t talk right or dress right or look right more than once, as in again this afternoon. I have learned after a long time to stand up and complain, but a lot of people lose out unfairly. [/quote]
I am sorry that anyone caused you any disrespect that way. I think that you and Sue are two of the smartest teachers on this group, man. To this day I refer to the information you both gave me about factoring and foil and I sometimes read through responses you guys have both made on other topics just for the sake of learning about stuff. You are soo smart, the last thing anyone should think about is like your mode of dress or something, I bet that would become secondary the moment you opened your mouth…if you sound as smart as you “read” then whoever disrespects you is just being silly, eh?
Re: I need help for a hearing impaired student
merlin — thanks for the nice message.
As far as getting treated badly, for some weird reason I just rub a certain group of people the wrong way; I can feel that my very existence offends them. Unfortunately part of this *is* my intelligence and competence which certain people take as a threat. Then some people dislike my appearance and/or my voice; although I can become invisible when not putting myself forward, when I do speak up a certain small group of people find my presence too large and in some way intimidating, I don’t exactly know why.
After years of being told to be quiet and talk differently and wear something else and never speak up and go to the back of the line and let people interrupt me and tell me what to do, I have said the heck with it, I get to be a grownup some time and now I’m over fifty if it isn’t my turn to speak now it never will be.
Yesterday was an electric company representative who interrupted me every five words and then decided to call *me* rude; I refused to fall for the manipulation, called back and talked to the boss, who was able to let me finish a sentence or two. The funny thing is that some people even do this to me when I’m trying to apologize!
Besides speaking for myself, I take it as my job to speak up for some of the others who get pushed to the back of the line. Just because you “lack social skills” whatever the heck that means because the rules keep changing anyway, that doesn’t mean you have any fewer rights than the ones who sweet-talk or manipulate their way to the head of the line
Just a note on your last sentence — being sweet and engaging is of course a good thing in life, but it is not a basis on which to make a decision whether someone should or shouldn’t get help, is it? I would hope that help is available to anyone who needs it even if they aren’t so prepossessing. I have rather strong feelings on this issue being a non-traditional sort of person myself and having been refused reasonable services because I didn’t talk right or dress right or look right more than once, as in again this afternoon. I have learned after a long time to stand up and complain, but a lot of people lose out unfairly.
Anyhow, I am positive that this person knows that she is deaf. She could hardly be unaware. So you don’t need to tippy-toe around the issue!
You just go to her the next chance you have to meet her, you invite her to sit down and talk, and you tell her clearly what you just told us, namely (a) that it is possible she can get some practical help, and (b) that the method to get this help is to go and get a doctor’s letter first, and then take it to the disabilities office.
By the way, people who work in the disabilities office may not be all bad, in fact a few of them may be quite nice, if you get to know them. They get every kind of liar and con artist coming in and trying to use them and they do get cynical and suspicious for good reason. They are also between a rock and a hard place with disabilities on one side and cost controls on the other. I know as a teacher and now renting rooms all about sweet little con artists with big round eyes, and they can turn you really nasty.