Aubrey was born with severe-to-profound hearing loss, and though she wasn't fully deaf, she was past the point of being helped by standard hearing aids. The doctors gave her parents two choices- she could go through life using hearing aids but being mostly reliant on sign language, or she could undergo the procedure to get cochlear implants (the risk here being that if the procedure was not successful, it would leave her fully deaf). My sister and brother-in-law opted for the latter option.

In short, cochlear implants work like this- the external sound processor picks up sound waves and converts them to electrical signals. It sends those signals through the external magnet device, which sends them to the internal implant and through the electrode that is coiled in the cochlea. The brain is then able to process these electrical signals as sound, bypassing the hairs in the inner ear altogether! To get a better idea of how this works, check out the video linked at the bottom of this post.

When the external device (consisting of the sound processor and magnet device) is removed, the individual is rendered completely deaf; however, when the individual is wearing it, they hear in a seemingly normal way.

This is the case with Aubrey- if you weren't aware she had implants, you probably wouldn't be able to tell under average circumstances!

Because she functions so well, it’s easy for those around her to forget that she actually is deaf and that she cannot function at school just like any normal kid. I interviewed Aubrey and asked her to explain some of the advantages and disadvantages that her implants give her when using technology to learn. My goal in this blog post is to use Aubrey's experiences to shed a light on students like her who have cochlear implants and enable educators to consider how to make digital learning equally accessible for students with this exceptionality.

Disadvantages

While cochlear implants have given Aubrey the ability to function in the hearing world, there are still very real struggles she faces with them on a regular basis. She feels as though her teachers often fail to recognize these things and therefore do not offer her the support she does need.

One issue, she explained, is that the batteries in her implants will die every few days and need to be replaced. There have been times when she doesn’t have replacement batteries on hand or simply can’t replace them at the time. It would be ideal in these times for her to be able to rely on closed captioning in remote learning Zoom calls or in videos they watch as a class (you know, as closed captioning was created for deaf people in the first place). However, Aubrey says that there are too many issues with automated captions, such as delays and not translating speech accurately, for her to be able to actually rely on them.

Another issue she explains that she has faced is noise overload. There are plenty of times when as a class, they are asked to watch a video/listen to a podcast and discuss it with those around them. When there is a lot of noise present, such as in situations like these, her brain is working harder than her peers’ to process these noises and make sense of them. This quickly leads to mental fatigue and prevents her brain from operating at a higher level. She expressed how she gets a major headache in times like these and her thinking feels really foggy.

There are even times in school when students independently get on online interactive platforms that use sound. She says that her teacher will usually provide them with earbuds or small headphones (pictured below) so that they are the only ones who can hear their computer’s sound. While this is sufficient for the rest of her classmates, this doesn’t work for people like her with cochlear implants. She hears through her external sound processors, to which earbuds and small headphones do not transmit sound. Aubrey has to use extra-large headphones that are big enough for her sound processor to pick up the sound waves, but she has often faced the problem of not being able to hear her device’s sound because she was not provided with these types of headphones.

Advantages

Though she was able to identify plenty of disadvantages of using technology with her implants, Aubrey also felt that they do give her kind of a superpower above her normally-hearing peers. When asked about how they give her an advantage at school, the first thing she talks about is her Roger pen. The Roger digital wireless devices are microphone receivers that can be placed next to any source of sound and then transmit that sound directly into the cochlear implant’s sound processor.

In the classroom, Aubrey’s teacher is able to wear one of these devices that is fashioned like a pin she can attach to her lanyard. The Roger pen transmits her teacher’s voice directly to Aubrey, allowing her to clearly hear her teacher over any distracting background noises. The Roger pen can also be placed next to the speakers when the teacher is playing a video, for example, to help Aubrey distinguish important sounds over other noises her sound processor is picking up.

This year is the first year that her school has offered that kind of technology to her, and Aubrey claims it has made a huge difference.

She has even gotten quite a few laughs out of it when her teachers accidentally forget to take the Roger pen off when they go to the restroom or to the lounge!

So what's all this have to do with digital equity?

When we as educators listen to firsthand accounts from students like Aubrey who have an exceptionality, it should cause us to consider how we can adjust our practice to be more inclusive. In considering students with cochlear implants, there are steps that educators can take to make learning with digital learning/tools accessible to this demographic:

• Ensure that the videos, podcasts, and video conferencing tools you use for learning provide accurate captions and speech-to-text capabilities.

• Reduce noise overload by not overusing videos and podcasts in your instruction.

• Offer extra-large headphones for students to use when completing online work independently.

• Utilize devices like the Roger pen that reduce noise confusion and help students with implants focus on the important sounds.

Students like Aubrey matter, and by applying some of these suggestions to your own practice, you communicate that you believe this about the deaf/hard-of-hearing/implanted students you teach.

One final tip, though- just remember to remove the Roger pen before going to the bathroom ;).