Caring for Our People Training: Improving Care for Tribal Members with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs
Classroom Modifications for Students with Hearing Impairments - Technology
STRATEGY # 6 USE A TTY DEVICE TO COMMUNICATE WITH STUDENTS
"A TTY (Text Telephone) modem or sometimes referred to as a TDD (Telecommunication Device for the Deaf) modem is a special device that lets people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired use the telephone to communicate. This is accomplished by allowing them to type messages back and forth to one another instead of talking and listening. A TTY is required at both ends of the conversation in order to communicate directly.
To use a TTY, you set a telephone handset onto special acoustic cups built into the TTY (some TTY models can be plugged directly into a telephone line). Then, type the message you want to send on the keyboard of the TTY. As you type, the message is sent over the phone line, just like your voice would be sent over the phone line if you talked. You can read the other person's response on the text display of the TTY.
If you don't have a TTY, you can still call a person who is deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired by using the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS). With TRS, a special operator types whatever you say so that the person you are calling can read your words on his or her TTY display. He or she will type back a response, which the TRS operator will read aloud for you to hear over the phone. Toll free TRS services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year." This definition is from Marilyn Electronics, click here to go to their site and learn about nearly every kind of TTY device on earth.
STRATEGY #7 USE INSTANT MESSAGING BETWEEN COMPUTERS IN THE CLASSROOM
This is only recommended for younger children who are just learning to type because, as anyone who has teenagers knows, the grammar and spelling used by most people on Instant Messenger are not the greatest "R U following?"
STRATEGY #8 TYPEWELL - A METHOD FOR TRANSLATING SPEECH TO TEXT
Typewell is a software program that will allow you to type abbreviations that the computer automatically expands into whole words. Also, training for Typewell transcribers can reduce the number of words you need to type. If you are old enough to remember shorthand, well, this is like shorthand but for your computer. For students who are both hearing-impaired and visually-impaired, Typewell has a text-enlarger and works with voice-recognition software.
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RECOMMENDED SITES
Independent review of Typewell by the Speech to Text Services Network. |
