Perspectives of D/HH-Students on Mainstream Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

Kirsten M.L. van den Heuij, Karin Neijenhuis, Martine Coene

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Abstract

Social, contextual, and technological changes affected the educational context for students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) in higher education in many countries. Although, several barriers to academic success already have been identified, the perspectives of D/HH-students on inclusion, educational facilities, and support are important to overcome them. This interview-based qualitative study describes the perspectives of 32 D/HH-students in mainstream higher education in The Netherlands. Within the dichotomy of environmental factors and personal factors, data have been analysed. Students experienced social acceptance by others with typical hearing, although participating in social events sometimes caused feelings of loneliness or separation. Access arrangements and adjustments in educational programs were necessary to cope with the experienced fatigue, participate during lectures or increase speech intelligibility of the lecturer. Especially poor classroom acoustics and limited intelligibility of speech hampered students during lectures. Students expressed their dissatisfaction about the way access arrangements and adjustments were arranged, yet at the same time, they do not know what the requested help should look like. A co-created policy in which D/HH-students, student support officers, and institutional policy makers are involved, would support D/HH-students in mainstream higher education in The Netherlands and abroad in their needs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)385-398
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of deaf studies and deaf education
Volume27
Issue number4
Early online date9 Jul 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected].

Funding

The authors thank all the participants who took part in the study for their valuable contribution. We thank student assistant T. Kukler for the contribution on the interview protocol and student assistants S. Dahir, N. van den Ende, I. el Harouni, D. Hereijgers, M. van Hooft, S. Karademir, E. Schreijenberg, and M. van Vliet for their contribution on the transcriptions.

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