Enhancing Education for Hard-of-Hearing Students: The Need for Grant Funding
The Southern Nevada Centers for Independent Living is requesting funding to purchase equipment for hard-of-hearing children of all grades. The program’s primary goal is to ensure a high quality of inclusive education. The grant will be spent on purchasing the teleprompters, this technology installation, and support in classes of two schools where the inclusive educational program is applied.
Currently, these schools attract interpreter who works with hard-of-hearing children. However, the quality of the translation could be better, especially in middle and high schools (Caselli et al., 2020). Such a situation is caused by the need for interpreters’ knowledge in some subjects.
If teleprompters are introduced, educational outcomes will be better. The mission of our organization is to remove barriers to the living of people with disabilities (Welcome to Southern Nevada Center for Independent Living, n. d.). Thus, the program’s advancement will improve the independent living of hard-of-hearing children, ensuring better education and furthermore varied professional opportunities.
Teleprompters are indispensable and significantly change the problems of the school adaptation of hard-of-hearing students. The consequences of cutting down the program or reducing the eligibility are the negative impact on the quality of education and occurring many communicational problems. Such a situation may result in the unfulfilling lives of hard-of-hearing students currently and in the future.
Specific Agency Information and History
Southern Nevada Independent Living Centers have been helping people since 1984 (Resources for the hard of hearing in Las Vegas, n.d.). The main focus of the organization is to help people with disabilities. The main goal is to enable people to make decisions and manage their lives (Resources for the hard of hearing in Las Vegas, n.d.). The uniqueness of our program is that we do not want to adjust people with disabilities to society.
On the contrary, our goal is to provide technological opportunities to people with disabilities so they can independently become full community members. In other words, requesting funding for the equipment is directly connected with the organization’s mission. The organization will allow hard-of-hearing children more advanced access to independent living by providing teleprompters.
This program will significantly help hard-of-hearing children, facilitate teachers’ work, and obviate the need for hiring interpreters, which is a costlier procedure in the long run. The children’s communication with their peers will become more straightforward and understandable thanks to such a mechanism. An alternative to teleprompters is the separate education of hard-of-hearing children in schools for the deaf. However, this approach is considered less beneficial for society and students (Alasim, 2020).
Inclusive learning contributes to creating an understanding and responsive environment in the social system (Nilholm, 2020). In other words, such a learning model contributes to the humanization of society. Moreover, schools for the deaf usually use a reduced educational program that does not equate to a full-fledged education received by healthy children. Such conditions limit the independence of decision-making and hard-of-hearing children. Therefore, ensuring the opportunity to receive full training is very important. Teleprompters are currently the most favorable solution to this problem.
In other words, this program provides enhanced educational opportunities for hard-of-hearing children. The most significant part of the program is to give the children more autonomy by eliminating the interpreter. Children can communicate in an equal environment with the rest, without an additional adult. The use of a teleprompter is a relatively easy technology to apply. The system administrators of the two schools will need to be trained in machine support. Thus, special training or qualification of the staff of the organization or school is optional.
Our centers have sign language interpreters who can help students adapt to the use of the new machine. Moreover, workers already have experience interacting with this technology. In other words, from the very beginning of the introduction of teleprompters, our agency plans to cover the collaboration. This approach is entirely consistent with the organization’s overall mission and the project’s goal. Therefore, it is ideally suited to meet the needs of the selected community.
Problems and Needs Statement
We will provide teleprompters for every classroom that could potentially be attended by a hard-of-hearing person in the two selected schools. The acquisition and adaptation of teleprompters are planned to progress in two stages. The first week is scheduled for purchasing devices. Next, teleprompters should be delivered to the two schools mentioned. The second step is to set up teleprompters for use with the involvement of system administrators. An additional stage is the study of the need to use teleprompters with teachers and hard of hearing students.
The main problem with the need for more teleprompters in the two schools is the declining quality of inclusive student learning. The average service life of teleprompters varies from 4 to 8 years, which can significantly contribute to the quality of education. This type of equipment needs to be present in the two selected schools. The modern approach mainly includes sign interpreters. However, such a concept leads to a dispersed perception of information. In other words, various studies show that this approach is ineffective and interferes with the normal functioning of students in a team (Caselli et al., 2020). Therefore, it is essential to integrate teleprompters as an alternative to an interpreter.
Procurement
After a series of observations, our organization found that teleprompters are the most profitable to buy from Amazon. This platform provides fast delivery of goods to our main office. The main reason for choosing this platform is the opportunity to purchase goods at a lower price than offers from other sellers. Moreover, when buying from more than 50 pieces, the seller will provide a 15 percent discount, allowing you to reduce costs.
The money saved will be enough to train the school system operators and pay for the translator’s working hours. The teleprompters selected on Amazon are compact but simultaneously, with a reasonably large screen. Thanks to this design, students’ attention will not be distracted by the devices. At the same time, a sufficiently large screen size will allow hard-of-hearing children to concentrate on reading and perceive the auditory information transmitted by the teacher.
When discussing the quality of teleprompters, it is worth noting that the device itself is a screen attached to a camera or other structure that displays text. The main element of the teleprompter is a translucent quartz glass mirror placed in front of the camera lens. You can shoot freely through it, but the text prompts are visible. Standard mirror settings are 80/20, 70/30, or 60/40 (transparency/reflectivity).
To reduce “parasitic” reflection (doubling), reduce the thickness (up to about 3 mm), increase the angle of inclination relative to the monitor, or increase the degree of dimming. Least of all interference in progress, there are also expensive optics with enlightenment. It is this enlightened mechanism that is built into teleprompters from Amazon.
Evaluation
The system for evaluating the results of the program implementation includes several stages. The first refers to assessing the effects of education of a socially and personally significant nature. The second contains the solid assimilation by students of knowledge and experience of various activities and behaviors. The most crucial assessment stage is the opportunity for students to advance independently in the studied educational areas.
The next step evaluates a significant increase in motivation and interest in learning and acquiring new experiences in activity and behavior. The last stage provides conditions for the general cultural and personal development of hard of hearing and late deaf students based on the formation of universal educational activities. The final step is the successful assimilation by students of the system of scientific knowledge, skills, and abilities (academic results), allowing them to continue their education at the next level. After the fact, life competencies that form the basis of social success will also be assessed.
Comparative evaluation will be carried out by collecting information from class accountants with and without teleprompters. The other two schools will be selected that integrate hearing-impaired students into regular classes with the help of an interpreter. The results of their activity will be compared with the academic performance of students in schools with classrooms equipped with teleprompters.
Our organization guarantees an 80 percent chance of increasing the mentioned indicators. Tests conducted in advance show significant progress in developing students’ independence when using teleprompters. Thus, the educational program is distinguished by increased attention to the formation of full-fledged life competence and the use of acquired knowledge by the hard of hearing in natural conditions.
Budget Request
References
Alasim, K. (2020). Inclusion Programmes for students who are deaf and hard of hearing in Saudis Arabia: Issues and recommendations. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 67(6), 571–591. Web.
Caselli, N., Hall, W., & Henner, J. (2020). American sign language interpreters in public schools: An illusion of inclusion that perpetuates language deprivation. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 24, 1323–1329. Web.
Harold Brown Foundation. (n.d.). Cause IQ. Web.
Nilholm, C. (2020). Research about inclusive education in 2020: How can we improve our theories in order to change practice? European Journal of Special Needs Education, 36(3), 358–370. Web.
Resources for the hard of hearing in Las Vegas. (n.d.). Desert Valley: Audiology. Web.
Welcome to Southern Nevada Center for Independent Living. (n.d.). Southern Nevada Centers of Independent Living. Web.