Advanced technology has opened up a gateway of education for students suffering from visual and hearing impairments. Until a few years ago, students with such disabilities had to depend on traditional learning resources like Braille scripts and sign language recordings. But now advanced technology has made things easier for such students. With the help of advanced tools and devices, these students can now take part in the regular classroom schedules and be a part of the regular curriculum.

Assistive Technology – The New Guide of Students with Visual and Hearing Impairments

The global reports suggest that a major portion of the school dropouts are students with hearing and visual impairments. Most of these students leave the hand of education due to the absence of proper guidance and assistive resources. In such circumstances, use of advanced technology is showing brighter results and it is successfully assisting the students to be an active part of a complete education system. Now let us have a quick look at the top tech innovations that are successfully assisting these students in effective learning and classroom engagement.

Assistive Tech Innovations for Visually Impaired

The visually impaired students had to depend on Braille scripts and speech recordings in order to excel in the field of education. Now innovative tools and devices have made things easier for them. Let us have a look:

• Television Magnification – This advanced device enlarges the graphics and texts that come on the screen. This helps the students with very low or medium vision to clearly identify the characters that makeup the text. Apart from this it helps in appropriate visualization, as well. An individual has the liberty to adjust the contrast, zooming and color of the text and graphics according to need.
• Screen Narrator – This device has a similarity with the narrator software used in computers nowadays. This device translates the visible text in the screen to digital speech and this helps the visually impaired students to hear and learn. This can effectively increase classroom engagement because the resources in the electronic boards are translated automatically in the hearing devices.
• OCR (Optical character Recognition) – The OCR scripted text books are placed on an advanced scanner and this device translates the texts into digital speech. The advanced OCR devices are portable and they can be carried along to different places. In fact, it can be synchronized with the computers, as well.
•  Braille Note takers – This is an advanced device which helps the visually impaired students to save the Braille scripts in the form of words and sentences. This device can be connected to a computer to enable speech support and on the other hand it can be connected with a Braille printer in order to get a Braille output.

Assistive Tech Innovations for Students with Hearing Impairments

These assistive technologies are helpful for students with low or medium hearing impairments. Let us have a quick look at the advanced tech innovations for students with hearing impairments.

• Auditory Training Device – This device helps the students to create a direct link with the teacher. The teacher uses a microphone whereas the student uses a hearing aid. This reduces the noise generated in the surrounding and the student with low-hearing capabilities can listen clearly.
•  Audio loops – This device directly transmits the sound from the source to the listener’s ears through an advanced device. The sound transmitted is clear and it is not interfered with noise. Therefore, the students can hear what the teacher is teaching.
•  Infrared audio systems – this helps the listeners to hear the sounds clearly without the hassles of chords or wires. These are particularly effective for lecture sessions and gatherings.

In addition to this, there are other tech innovations like cochlear implants, captioned televisions and telecommunication devices which facilitate learning for the hearing impaired students.

Author Bio:

Simon Hopes is a proficient blogger and a part time online tutor who offers acadsoc biology help. His articles are informative and interesting to read at the same time.