Training courses for deaf people

amibovvered

Does anyone know what sort of assistance may be available to help a deaf person get the most out of training courses at work? The person wears a hearing aid but does not sign or lip read so unfortunately a lip-speaker or BSL interpreter would not be of any use.

I've tried googling, but asking about training courses where a person is deaf just brings up deaf awareness courses and the like, whilst training course assistance tells me all about finance available!

The employer is a national one so could afford to provide assistance (although whether the person's line manager would support them in applying is not known).

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head apart from the above-mentioned interpreters is a note-taker but these are I think courses on how to use new technology etc so they need the notes immediately to be able to ask questions rather than read after, if you know what I mean.

TIA

Savvy_Sue

Would a personal loop system help? Access to Work may fund one.

amibovvered

Yes, I thought of that and intend to suggest it. He says his boss already had a loop system installed but that it was unsuccessful because of the acoustics in the room. I'm not sure what he means by that, but as he is an electronics expert he knows how they work so I presume he knows what he is talking about. However, a personal loop could involve the speaker wearing a mic which would surely work better.

I'll also ask him if there is any possibility of one-to-one training, although suspect that may be prohibitively expensive for the employer and may go beyond what would be considered 'reasonable' adjustment.

sheramber

Could the tutor supply written instructions for the deaf person.

A hearing loop in the room would allow the deaf person to hear while not affecting the other people in the room.

An employer is required to make reasonable adjustments for any disability.

We had a hearing loop in our enquiry office which deaf people tuned into when necessary.

Watching_the_Weather

amibovvered wrote: »

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head apart from the above-mentioned interpreters is a note-taker but these are I think courses on how to use new technology etc so they need the notes immediately to be able to ask questions rather than read after, if you know what I mean.

TIA

There are companies that offer live captioning and translation so the deaf person has instant access to what is being said. Would this be suitable in this situation?


Is the training being done internally or is an external company involved? If so, would they be able to provide any support? They may have experienced this before and have systems in place to make the training accessible.


Otherwise, would making sure all trainers have basic deaf awareness and having a discussion with the individual as to his requirements help? For me, small things like sitting at the front, the trainer not moving around too much, access to training material before hand so I know what vocabulary to expect and making sure that only one person is speaking at a time make the biggest difference and are relatively easy to implement if you explain why it is needed.

amibovvered

As I said, a hearing loop has already been tried and was unsuccessful. I've now found out that a personal loop was also tried and didn't work well, however, it was not the sort where the speaker can wear a mic so I have suggested that.

The courses are held on the employers premises and from what I gather it is the same person doing the training each time. He (the trainer) has been made aware of the problem but apparently has a 'strange' accent (not sure whether this means foreign, dialect or speech impediment).

Some sort of live captioning would be ideal I should think, unfortunately I suspect it would also be very expensive. The deaf person is 62 and the employers may not feel it worth spending money on training someone of that age. He doesn't really want to retire, but is becoming aware that he is 'past his sell-by date'.

I will pass on all suggestions, many thanks for them.