Lend them your ears

Issue Awareness and sensitivity can prevent the hearing impaired from feeling marginalised, writes Pankaja Srinivasan

Hearing impaired children Include them in the mainstream

“When my parents found that I was profoundly deaf without the ability to hear speech at age two-and-a-half, they consulted many doctors and educational experts. Their response was generally negative. My language and social skills appeared to be non-existent. I am told that whenever guests visited, I’d hide under the bed,” says Raja Srinivasan, a 37-year-old software engineer, currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science and also pursuing a law degree.

Raja was born before the advent of proven educational programmes and technological and legal support for the hearing impaired. But, because his parents adopted both teaching and parenting roles, he picked up lip-reading, literacy, and comprehension through daily interaction and teaching, ‘all day, every day’.

Related problems

As a disability, hearing impairment can be a double whammy. It could lead to speech impairment, language delay and may be, even diminish intellectual function, says speech/language pathologist and audiologist K. Narendiran, who, with his wife and special educator N. Yohavathi, runs KRISH (Kovai Rehabilitation and Information Services for the Handicapped).

“Many parents only wake up to the disability when their two to three-year-old child is not picking up speech. This is well past the critical period for speech and language development,” says Narendiran. Like Mohan Kumar’s mother Lakshmi who thought her son was just a ‘late speaker’, while, in fact, he had profound hearing loss. Nevertheless, he did well academically. He scored 435 out of 500 in school, and is now pursuing a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering. “But, he doesn’t mix freely with others of his age. How will he fare in placements with job opportunities?” worries his mother.

Raja who studied at Berkeley, in the U.S., remembers: “In college, the classrooms were huge, classmates varied and professors generally had less time to accommodate. I tried oral interpreters and note takers, and while these worked somewhat, these didn’t convey all the information I needed. Even for a hearing person, it can be a struggle to understand accents; imagine the challenge for a deaf person who has never understood speech before!” But, although the transition was hard, Raja says, “I learned independence and assertiveness, which served me well.”

M.N.G Mani, honorary president of the UDIS Forum (a network of parents, persons with disabilities, professionals and voluntary organisations that facilitates employment and empowerment of the disabled) says, “Disability should be treated as a developmental activity, not as charity. Everyone should be sensitised to disabilities.”

It is simple, says Dr Mani: Don’t neglect the hearing impaired in the group; get his attention before speaking clearly or using sign language. Use multi-sensory communication (hand language, smile, facial expression, vocal dialogue, eye expression). “In India, we have pro-active, comprehensive policies for persons with disabilities. But, they have to be implemented in letter and spirit. There should be more reach. Effective networking and parent-involvement are crucial. Most parents only look at the survivability of their hearing impaired children. Instead, they should draw their children into mainstream life, not make them objects of pity or charity, says Mani and adds, “The more you include the disabled in the mainstream, the less the disability impact”.

(December 3 is World Disability Day)