Hearing Loss and Young Adults
Rates of acquired hearing loss are on the rise for adolescents and young adults (Henderson, Test, & Hartnick; 2011; Shargorodsky, Curhan, Curhan, & Eavey, 2010). As college students, they may be eligible to receive services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (US Department of Education, 2013); for example, they may receive accommodations such a note takers. Typically, however, these students do not access services and are under-identified on college campuses. Furthermore, students themselves may not be aware they have a hearing loss or may benefit from accommodation (LePrell, Hensley, Campbell, Hall, & Guire, 2011). Overall, their challenges may not be apparent to their professors, mirroring lack of awareness of hearing loss in larger society.
The majority of young people who are hard of hearing have mild to moderate hearing loss in one ear (Shargorodsky, et al., 2010). They may do well in one on one conversations and small groups, but may struggle to acquire information in large classrooms due to acoustical properties of the room and the environmental noise created by a large number of students. The use of sound field amplification can improve student access by altering the signal-to-noise ratio (Larsen & Blair, 2008), resulting in clearer input of professors’ information to students and lessening their burden. While many large classrooms are equipped with sound systems and wireless microphones, self report and observational data suggest professors may not use this simple technology on a regular basis.
References
Henderson, E., Testa, M.A., & Hartnick, C. (2011). Prevalence of noise-induced hearing-threshold shift and hearing loss among US youths. Pediatrics, 27, e39-e46. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-0926
Larsen, J.B. & Blair, J.C. (2008). The effect of classroom amplification on the signal-to-noise ratio in classrooms while class is in session. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 451-460. doi: 10.1044/0161-1461(2008/07-0032)
Le Prell, C.G., Hensley, B.N., Campbell, K.C.M., Hall, J.W., & Guire, K. (2011). Evidence of hearing loss in a ‘normal-hearing’ college student population. International Journal of Audiology, 50, S21-S31. doi: 10.3109/14992027.2010.540722.
Shargorodsky, J., Curhan, S.G., Curhan, G.C., & Eavey, R. (2010). Change in prevalence of hearing loss in US adolescents. JAMA, 304, 772-778. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1124
US Department of Education (2013). Protecting students with disabilities. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/504faq.html.
