Supporting Teachers of d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

Sponsor: HCDE / Seattle Children's Hospital

Students: Jesse Lopez, Yudian Yuan, Rama Malik, Danny Vu

HCDE master's team

Team Hear Us, sponsored by Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington's Human Centered Design and Engineering Department, explored the challenges faced by teachers of students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH). Within this space, the team focused on designing a solution for public school teachers to better support their DHH children. Research for this project included interviews and with teachers and DHH adults, highlighting the unique challenges from both perspectives. Key insights revealed a lack of understanding and support for teaching DHH students, emotional labor for teachers, time constraints, and more. Students' perspectives highlighted challenges in learning subjects heavily reliant on hearing, the desire to fit in, and experiences of isolation and judgment. Leaning into the immersive and engaging qualities of virtual reality (VR), the team designed an all-new program for training teachers.