As college approaches, students are busy preparing for the next chapter—organizing class schedules, purchasing textbooks and getting familiar with their new campuses. For those with hearing loss, this preparation involves a few additional steps to create a seamless academic experience. Let’s look at a few tips to help improve your college experience and how hearing aids can help.
Tips for a Seamless College Experience
Before the semester begins, take a look at these tips and decide which ones are right for you:
- Talk to the school. Reach out to your school to learn about the resources available for students with hearing loss. These resources can vary by institution but may include live-action captioning services, ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices, classroom aids and more.
- Connect with your professors. It’s important to communicate with your professors before classes start. Let them know about your hearing needs through a face-to-face meeting or an email. Let them know if you’ll be using hearing aids or assistive listening devices, and provide any specific accommodation requests you may need. A few common requests include face-to-face communication, writing on the board and providing notes or slides in advance.
- Choose your seat wisely. Your seat choice can significantly impact your ability to hear and understand lectures. In large lecture halls, sitting at the front is ideal. Opt for a centrally located seat for classes arranged in a horseshoe or circular format.
- Embrace social opportunities. Making new friends and building connections is crucial to the college experience. While hearing loss can sometimes make social situations challenging, don’t let it hold you back. Talk to your new friends about your hearing loss, find quiet areas like Lorenzi Park to hang out and ask for clarification when needed. With these strategies, you can fully participate in mixers, study groups and other social activities.
How Can Hearing Aids Help?
Hearing aids are invaluable tools for both academic and social situations. A few ways they can help you include:
- Using directional microphones and noise reduction to amplify your professor’s voice in class
- Using Bluetooth® to stream virtual seminars and meetings directly into your ears
- Amplifying speech sounds and suppressing irrelevant background noise to create easier communication in social settings
Hearing loss affects more than 10% of the people in the United States. While it can present communication challenges, it doesn’t have to stop you from getting the most out of your lectures or social events. To learn more about how hearing aids and communication strategies can help you, contact Nevada Ear + Sinus Institute today for an appointment with one of our trusted experts.
Call Nevada Ear + Sinus Institute at (702) 735-7668 for more information or to schedule an appointment.