Teachers work with a diverse range of student needs, learning styles and a curriculum that presumes the use of audiovisual/multimedia content.
It is vital that teachers who have students who are Deaf or have hearing impairment in their classrooms create an equitable educational environment through the use of inclusive teaching practices.
The importance of a quieter classroom and the reduction of background noise have benefits for all students and especially those with deafness/hearing impairment.
The use of captions in the classroom provides essential access to the curriculum. Research has highlighted the link between the use of captions and improved literacy benefits for students.
Teachers using digital, multimodal texts and media texts such as multimedia, DVD, video, websites or online media in their classroom practice need to ensure the use of captioned content. There are a variety of places to find captioned content and resources to assist teachers provide captioned access in the classroom.
When captions are not available, it may still be possible to source a transcript in some instances.
The Classroom Access Project was a purpose-designed access initiative of Media Access Australia which examined the use of captioned multimedia in mainstream schools for students who are Deaf or have hearing impairment and their hearing peers.
Further information and support services from a range of organisations is readily available for teachers who work with students with deafness/hearing impairment.
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