The deaf child with a radio aid in school
Aug. 14th, 2014 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
natalyadYou are a deaf or hard of hearing child in mainstream school sometime between 1985 and 2005.
You wear hearing aids (or a cochlea implant and processor) which may or may not work to varying degrees to aid your hearing. You may also be relying on visual cues to know what is going on in the classroom. The classroom can be very noisy.
One day your teacher of the deaf brings a radio aid into school. The receiver box connects to your hearing aids or CI processors with shoes, and wires, the box is clipped or botched onto your clothing somehow, probably in some way which is uncomfortable or annoying. If it’s nearer 2005 you have small connectors which clip into your hearing aids or CI processors which instead of being bulky are fiddly and annoying and you’re constantly terrified of losing them. Your teacher is given a transmitter unit which he or she wears around their neck, everyone tells you it is to make their voice louder so you can hear it better.
When you are wearing the radio aid receiver plugged in and turned on and the teacher is using their transmitter in this scenario you are able to hear their voice - right inside your head. It might help you understand what the teacher is saying better, but it makes it harder to hear or focus on what the other children are saying. You don't get told there's a mode which allows you to hear the teacher and the classroom noise at the same time as the transmitter is probably set up for you and might be locked so you can't change it.
The teacher instructs the class to get on with some work, which you do like almost everyone else. You write your name, the date and assuming you understood the instructions the required title at the top of your page and start working through the tasks. If you are lucky you get into the zone and are getting through the work.
"JOHNNY, STOP THAT!!!"
*You flinch!*
Your hands fly to your hearing aids or the radio aid and the OFF switch.
The teacher has just bellowed at 90 decibels, right into your head (via the radio aid).
Your heart pounds, adrenaline floods through your body.
Oh.... It’s not you in trouble.... It’s someone else....
Breathe slowly, your heart still pounding. You look around the room, most people are just working away, they didn't even notice the shouting or your flinches.
This kind of shouting interruption or other sudden noisy incident isn't uncommon. Loud noises can happen every few minutes if the usual suspects have a naughty day. Every time it happens though, you get startled and cannot concentrate on your work.
You might decide to leave your hearing aids and or radio aid off or turned low so the shouting doesn't startle you. If you are lucky you might be able to re-focus on your work which you want to finish in time so the teacher is not actually cross with you.
*Tap on the shoulder*
The teacher is standing next to you looking cross. Their mouth is moving but you can’t hear much of or anything they are saying. You turn your hearing aids and or radio aid back on cautiously as you know there’s a high chance that the sound of the words coming out of the teacher’s mouth are too loud because they are cross, their face distorted with anger, and this time it is you who is in trouble.
"Why have you turned your hearing aids/radio aid off?"
"Mrs Teacher-Of-The-Deaf says you need to keep your hearing aids/radio aid on at all times."
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU..."
There is no way you can tell the teacher that you turned your hearing aids and or radio aid off because they kept yelling into the transmitter and scaring you. Or that your entire school life is a confusing mixture of loud and confusing noises or inaudible confusing speaking people.
You hate the radio aid for other reasons too. The stupid wires which get tangled in everything, sometimes sending your hearing aids flying which makes other people laugh at you. The receiver box might be ugly; NHS beige or poo coloured; it might be too heavy for your clothes which can cause it to go kerplunking to the floor - and if it breaks that’s another thing you get into trouble for. Hearing aid harnesses are hideous, you don't want your parents to get that idea into their heads. Everyone else gets to rush out of the classroom at the end of the day, but you have to remember to turn off, unplug and charge the radio aid or return it to somewhere for safekeeping overnight, knowing you’ll get into trouble if you forget, or worse get constantly nagged by the teacher about it.
And that’s before the ways using radio aids is stressful. Teachers who fiddle with the transmitter or have rustly clothes which make a horrible noise. Having to remember to collect the transmitter from the teacher at the end of every teaching session before they disappear off to wherever teachers go after classes, this is worse at secondary school with up to 6 or 7 classes a day. Desperately trying to shove the radio aid bits into your school bag quickly so you can keep up with everyone else - they are already half way to the next classroom. Supply teachers deciding that a ‘child like you’ can’t possibly be responsible for such an important and expensive piece of technology so refuse to return the transmitter to you; preferring to hide it somewhere in the terrifying staffroom. Meaning you will have to go and knock on the dreaded staffroom door during a break and hope it isn't someone scary who answers it. Then actually go into the staffroom while it’s full of teachers as only you know what the stupid radio aid looks like.
There are some entertaining moments, the time the teacher forgets to turn the transmitter off and goes to gossip in the staffroom; so you and any friends can try to listen in. The teacher will try to blame you for their forgetfulness though, and try to get your parents on their side. It's funny the first time the teacher goes to the toilet with the transmitter turned on, but gets pretty boring when repeated.
All of this hassle for noise that is IN YOUR HEAD. Often doesn't feel worth the hassle. You might stop using it in secondary school, stop caring what the SENCO or the Teachers of The Deaf say; they can’t make you, they’ll just nag and mither you about it. If you stop using it for long enough maybe they'll forget you ever had it.
...
Some years later you’re thinking about university and suddenly the spectre of radio aids appears again...
The university disability adviser talks enthusiastically about how helpful radio aids might be for you in lecture theatres where there’s up to 300 students, not the 30 max you are used to at school or college. The DSA Needs Assessor also goes on about radio aids, swears they’re much better now than they used to be and might even have some they want you to try.
You can’t think of anything worse. Bad memories. Hassle.
Giving control of your hearing whatever hearing you have to someone else? Not a chance! No thanks!
Disclaimer, commentary and my personal experience
To use or not use radio aids as an adult should be a deaf person's choice.
As a deaf adult I have returned to using radio aids, several years after the BAHA got appropriate connectors. Access to Work provided me with a Connevans fmGenie in 2007 and allowed an upgrade to a Comfort Digisystem in 2013.
Radio aids don't amplify sound "make it louder" no matter what anyone tells you. They eliminate the distance between the speaker's voice or desired sound and the listener, and in doing so increase the signal compared to the (background or unwanted) noise. Having a microphone a few centimetres away from a speaker's mouth vs being two or more metres away makes a huge difference because physics happens in the form of the "inverse squared law. Radio aids can help in large rooms with lots of people shuffling around in them, or reduce the unwanted noise of the increasingly ubiquitous noisy digital projector and air conditioning systems.
Visible radio aid systems and symbols of deafness also make people do better deaf awareness, as they have a constant visual reminder. I love it when I can find another deaf or hard of hearing person to wire up to one of my spare radio aids as "visible reminder" so I don't have to necessarily have to use mine myself! I may write about the complexities of visible vs invisible impairments and and and some other time...
Radio aids are still annoying:
Many of the issues in the article above haven't changed since 1986 when I got my first poo coloured Phonak radio aid. I still remember its white 9 volt Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable batteries which needed charging every 6 hours, fortunately in the classroom at primary school. Secondary school's "charging place" was up 4 flights of stairs at the furthest part of the school from the school bus stops. I could charge the radio aid, or miss all the buses home and we weren't supposed to use the public buses. The units were heavy so carrying them to and from school (on top of all my other "assistive tech" wasn't an option. Learning to manage the listening requirements of so many subjects and teachers in so many different classrooms was hard enough without having to give and collect the transmitter unit from teachers every lesson. I got my first Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) in early 1992 aged 12 and they didn't have radio aids which connected to them, so I was able to stop using it.
Not everyone can use the micro receiver units, I'm one of them as I choose to use a weird BAHA which doesn't use the modern connectors. I still have wires and receiver boxes and I ping hearing aids and glasses everywhere quite often - it's less bad as an adult as I can crack a joke before anyone else can - all I need is false teeth to finish the set etc. Speakers are still notorious for fiddling with the transmitters - one radio aid I tried sounded appalling if the transmitter casing rubbed against anything! I'm still responsible for making sure I have the right wires, working hearing aid batteries + spares, charged radio aid batteries, and enough brain to remember how to make it work. I manage by having a set of everything in one bag for that purpose only.
As an adult, I have more choices. I can download the radio aid manuals and set the system up the way I want to, or twiddle with the setting whenever I like. I very rarely give a radio aid transmitter unit to a speaker because I still hate having to ask for the transmitter back cringing inside every time I have to. I usually use a conference microphone which I put somewhere convenient for me and away from people's poky hands. I can and do control the volumes of different systems. Adults speaking in adult situations tend not to shout suddenly. I can request some deaf awareness a lot of the time.
With everything written above in mind: Sometimes I am that disability advisor being enthusiastic to a prospective or current deaf or hard of hearing student about radio aids. Sometimes I see my students cringe and I wonder if they have bad memories of radio aids too - and will ask them. I try to make suggestions about ways a radio aid can be used in a way which is useful while not giving other people control over the deaf/HOH student's hearing.
I am also aware that some people just don't get any or enough gain or assistance from radio aids to overcome the intrinsic annoyingness of using them. That is OK too.
Whatever my students choose, they are adults who have the right to make and live with the consequences of their choices. What I can do, is give them the opportunity to make an informed choice and know that they can change their mind or talk to me about deafness and study stuff as I might have ideas and I will try hard not to be judgemental even if I think they're making a mistake - which are their mistakes to make.
I wish every teacher of the deaf, SENCO and parent of a deaf child knew what wearing a radio aid was like. Even if it isn't possible to allow a deaf child in education to "opt out" of using one. Our experiences as children and teenagers often inform our feelings and choices as adults.
You wear hearing aids (or a cochlea implant and processor) which may or may not work to varying degrees to aid your hearing. You may also be relying on visual cues to know what is going on in the classroom. The classroom can be very noisy.
One day your teacher of the deaf brings a radio aid into school. The receiver box connects to your hearing aids or CI processors with shoes, and wires, the box is clipped or botched onto your clothing somehow, probably in some way which is uncomfortable or annoying. If it’s nearer 2005 you have small connectors which clip into your hearing aids or CI processors which instead of being bulky are fiddly and annoying and you’re constantly terrified of losing them. Your teacher is given a transmitter unit which he or she wears around their neck, everyone tells you it is to make their voice louder so you can hear it better.
When you are wearing the radio aid receiver plugged in and turned on and the teacher is using their transmitter in this scenario you are able to hear their voice - right inside your head. It might help you understand what the teacher is saying better, but it makes it harder to hear or focus on what the other children are saying. You don't get told there's a mode which allows you to hear the teacher and the classroom noise at the same time as the transmitter is probably set up for you and might be locked so you can't change it.
The teacher instructs the class to get on with some work, which you do like almost everyone else. You write your name, the date and assuming you understood the instructions the required title at the top of your page and start working through the tasks. If you are lucky you get into the zone and are getting through the work.
"JOHNNY, STOP THAT!!!"
*You flinch!*
Your hands fly to your hearing aids or the radio aid and the OFF switch.
The teacher has just bellowed at 90 decibels, right into your head (via the radio aid).
Your heart pounds, adrenaline floods through your body.
Oh.... It’s not you in trouble.... It’s someone else....
Breathe slowly, your heart still pounding. You look around the room, most people are just working away, they didn't even notice the shouting or your flinches.
This kind of shouting interruption or other sudden noisy incident isn't uncommon. Loud noises can happen every few minutes if the usual suspects have a naughty day. Every time it happens though, you get startled and cannot concentrate on your work.
You might decide to leave your hearing aids and or radio aid off or turned low so the shouting doesn't startle you. If you are lucky you might be able to re-focus on your work which you want to finish in time so the teacher is not actually cross with you.
*Tap on the shoulder*
The teacher is standing next to you looking cross. Their mouth is moving but you can’t hear much of or anything they are saying. You turn your hearing aids and or radio aid back on cautiously as you know there’s a high chance that the sound of the words coming out of the teacher’s mouth are too loud because they are cross, their face distorted with anger, and this time it is you who is in trouble.
"Why have you turned your hearing aids/radio aid off?"
"Mrs Teacher-Of-The-Deaf says you need to keep your hearing aids/radio aid on at all times."
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU..."
There is no way you can tell the teacher that you turned your hearing aids and or radio aid off because they kept yelling into the transmitter and scaring you. Or that your entire school life is a confusing mixture of loud and confusing noises or inaudible confusing speaking people.
You hate the radio aid for other reasons too. The stupid wires which get tangled in everything, sometimes sending your hearing aids flying which makes other people laugh at you. The receiver box might be ugly; NHS beige or poo coloured; it might be too heavy for your clothes which can cause it to go kerplunking to the floor - and if it breaks that’s another thing you get into trouble for. Hearing aid harnesses are hideous, you don't want your parents to get that idea into their heads. Everyone else gets to rush out of the classroom at the end of the day, but you have to remember to turn off, unplug and charge the radio aid or return it to somewhere for safekeeping overnight, knowing you’ll get into trouble if you forget, or worse get constantly nagged by the teacher about it.
And that’s before the ways using radio aids is stressful. Teachers who fiddle with the transmitter or have rustly clothes which make a horrible noise. Having to remember to collect the transmitter from the teacher at the end of every teaching session before they disappear off to wherever teachers go after classes, this is worse at secondary school with up to 6 or 7 classes a day. Desperately trying to shove the radio aid bits into your school bag quickly so you can keep up with everyone else - they are already half way to the next classroom. Supply teachers deciding that a ‘child like you’ can’t possibly be responsible for such an important and expensive piece of technology so refuse to return the transmitter to you; preferring to hide it somewhere in the terrifying staffroom. Meaning you will have to go and knock on the dreaded staffroom door during a break and hope it isn't someone scary who answers it. Then actually go into the staffroom while it’s full of teachers as only you know what the stupid radio aid looks like.
There are some entertaining moments, the time the teacher forgets to turn the transmitter off and goes to gossip in the staffroom; so you and any friends can try to listen in. The teacher will try to blame you for their forgetfulness though, and try to get your parents on their side. It's funny the first time the teacher goes to the toilet with the transmitter turned on, but gets pretty boring when repeated.
All of this hassle for noise that is IN YOUR HEAD. Often doesn't feel worth the hassle. You might stop using it in secondary school, stop caring what the SENCO or the Teachers of The Deaf say; they can’t make you, they’ll just nag and mither you about it. If you stop using it for long enough maybe they'll forget you ever had it.
...
Some years later you’re thinking about university and suddenly the spectre of radio aids appears again...
The university disability adviser talks enthusiastically about how helpful radio aids might be for you in lecture theatres where there’s up to 300 students, not the 30 max you are used to at school or college. The DSA Needs Assessor also goes on about radio aids, swears they’re much better now than they used to be and might even have some they want you to try.
You can’t think of anything worse. Bad memories. Hassle.
Giving control of your hearing whatever hearing you have to someone else? Not a chance! No thanks!
Disclaimer, commentary and my personal experience
To use or not use radio aids as an adult should be a deaf person's choice.
As a deaf adult I have returned to using radio aids, several years after the BAHA got appropriate connectors. Access to Work provided me with a Connevans fmGenie in 2007 and allowed an upgrade to a Comfort Digisystem in 2013.
Radio aids don't amplify sound "make it louder" no matter what anyone tells you. They eliminate the distance between the speaker's voice or desired sound and the listener, and in doing so increase the signal compared to the (background or unwanted) noise. Having a microphone a few centimetres away from a speaker's mouth vs being two or more metres away makes a huge difference because physics happens in the form of the "inverse squared law. Radio aids can help in large rooms with lots of people shuffling around in them, or reduce the unwanted noise of the increasingly ubiquitous noisy digital projector and air conditioning systems.
Visible radio aid systems and symbols of deafness also make people do better deaf awareness, as they have a constant visual reminder. I love it when I can find another deaf or hard of hearing person to wire up to one of my spare radio aids as "visible reminder" so I don't have to necessarily have to use mine myself! I may write about the complexities of visible vs invisible impairments and and and some other time...
Radio aids are still annoying:
Many of the issues in the article above haven't changed since 1986 when I got my first poo coloured Phonak radio aid. I still remember its white 9 volt Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable batteries which needed charging every 6 hours, fortunately in the classroom at primary school. Secondary school's "charging place" was up 4 flights of stairs at the furthest part of the school from the school bus stops. I could charge the radio aid, or miss all the buses home and we weren't supposed to use the public buses. The units were heavy so carrying them to and from school (on top of all my other "assistive tech" wasn't an option. Learning to manage the listening requirements of so many subjects and teachers in so many different classrooms was hard enough without having to give and collect the transmitter unit from teachers every lesson. I got my first Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) in early 1992 aged 12 and they didn't have radio aids which connected to them, so I was able to stop using it.
Not everyone can use the micro receiver units, I'm one of them as I choose to use a weird BAHA which doesn't use the modern connectors. I still have wires and receiver boxes and I ping hearing aids and glasses everywhere quite often - it's less bad as an adult as I can crack a joke before anyone else can - all I need is false teeth to finish the set etc. Speakers are still notorious for fiddling with the transmitters - one radio aid I tried sounded appalling if the transmitter casing rubbed against anything! I'm still responsible for making sure I have the right wires, working hearing aid batteries + spares, charged radio aid batteries, and enough brain to remember how to make it work. I manage by having a set of everything in one bag for that purpose only.
As an adult, I have more choices. I can download the radio aid manuals and set the system up the way I want to, or twiddle with the setting whenever I like. I very rarely give a radio aid transmitter unit to a speaker because I still hate having to ask for the transmitter back cringing inside every time I have to. I usually use a conference microphone which I put somewhere convenient for me and away from people's poky hands. I can and do control the volumes of different systems. Adults speaking in adult situations tend not to shout suddenly. I can request some deaf awareness a lot of the time.
With everything written above in mind: Sometimes I am that disability advisor being enthusiastic to a prospective or current deaf or hard of hearing student about radio aids. Sometimes I see my students cringe and I wonder if they have bad memories of radio aids too - and will ask them. I try to make suggestions about ways a radio aid can be used in a way which is useful while not giving other people control over the deaf/HOH student's hearing.
I am also aware that some people just don't get any or enough gain or assistance from radio aids to overcome the intrinsic annoyingness of using them. That is OK too.
Whatever my students choose, they are adults who have the right to make and live with the consequences of their choices. What I can do, is give them the opportunity to make an informed choice and know that they can change their mind or talk to me about deafness and study stuff as I might have ideas and I will try hard not to be judgemental even if I think they're making a mistake - which are their mistakes to make.
I wish every teacher of the deaf, SENCO and parent of a deaf child knew what wearing a radio aid was like. Even if it isn't possible to allow a deaf child in education to "opt out" of using one. Our experiences as children and teenagers often inform our feelings and choices as adults.
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Date: 2017-10-04 10:14 pm (UTC)