Tips for College Students with Hearing Loss

If you have trouble hearing, you may be used to taking extra steps to ensure you can be understood. When you tell others about your hearing loss, you put yourself in an excellent position to succeed. This couldn’t be more true if you are in college or about to start.

Receiving and understanding new information is the key to doing well in college. College is a great chance to learn more and set yourself up for a successful career in the future, but you will have to work hard. This is the biggest problem with hearing loss. Still, if you work hard and tell your classmates, teachers, and school administration, you can ask for the tools you need to stay involved in classroom discussions and information to reach your educational goals.

Here are some tips on how to stay ahead in college when you have hearing loss.

Get in touch with your school.

Anyone can find the idea of going to college overwhelming, but it will take more work if you have trouble hearing.

After being accepted: After you’ve signed up for college, get in touch. Ask for what you need. They will have the things you need to do well in school. You don’t have to tell everyone about your hearing loss, but you should tell the school staff and teachers. This can give your professors time to set up the right adjustments to help you do as well as you can. These accommodations can help you feel more at ease in class, making learning more accessible and fun.

After you know your classes: Once you’ve signed up for classes, please don’t wait to send your teachers an email to let them know you have trouble hearing. Ensure they know if you use hearing aids or another device to help you hear. If you know of any ways to communicate that make it easier to understand, you can suggest them. Some of these could be sitting closer to the front so you can read the teacher’s lips and hear better because you’re closer to them. It makes sense to ask the teacher if they have ever worked with hard-of-hearing students and what methods they found most compelling.

In your first week: After you’ve talked to your teachers, don’t be afraid to talk to your school’s services to find out what kinds of services they offer to help you learn. There must be room for everyone to enroll in schools, and that includes you. Most universities have people who can help students who are having trouble learning. In case you miss something, they might be able to provide live captioning or written class notes. If you look into your choices, you can be ready to pay full attention in class.

Set yourself up to succeed.

Starting a new class can be scary, but don’t be afraid to sit in the front row.

Choose your seat carefully: It would help if you sat as close to the front as possible. If you are close to the front, you might be able to hear the teacher better. You can also see more clearly how reading people’s lips and body language can help you do well. Even if you have hearing aids or other devices to help you hear, you can still lose audio information all too often. Avoid places in the room where noises like a heater or air conditioner could be distracting. Also, don’t sit near open windows, where background noise or a lawn mower might make it hard for you to hear and participate in class.

Reveal your hearing loss: You might also find it helpful to tell your class that you have trouble hearing. This helps a lot if the class is set up like a conversation. This gives you a chance to talk about the best ways for your classmates to talk to you, like making eye contact and using your name to get your attention before they speak. This is another way to ensure you get the most out of your class and college experience.

Many people are already in school and looking for help. If it’s hard for you to keep up in class, it could be because you have trouble hearing. Set up a hearing test right away to find out for sure. Don’t wait around until things get worse.