Teaching Students with Sensory and Physical Disabilities

Defining Deaf and Hard of Hearing Disabilities

Hearing disabilities occur on a continuum from mild to more serious impairments in the ability to process auditory cues. Deafness is a spectrum of disabilities referring to anything from mild hearing impairments to fully identifying with the Deaf community and culture (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). Defining deafness or hard of hearing requires various types of assessments, including those that determine responsiveness to various types of sounds and their decibel levels. Hearing loss can also be defined according to cause or type (such as damage to the auditory nerves), degree of hearing loss (whether a person can hear some sounds but not others), and age of onset or etiology (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). According to laws like IDEA, however, hearing disabilities may also be defined by the degree to which they impact the student's performance in school (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). The degree to which the student can process auditory stimuli or use language will have a strong bearing on their performance in a general education classroom.

Because hard of hearing and deafness vary so much, there is no single set of characteristics that distinguishes this group of students. Some deaf children will identify fully with Deaf culture, which is defined by the use of a distinct language and "folk tradition," with its own norms, myths, symbols, and traditions (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009, p. 246). Students who identify with Deaf culture would likely prefer to attend specialized schools for the Deaf community. Not all students, however, identify with Deaf culture.

Students who are hard of hearing or deaf may have few if any actual cognitive impairments beyond those traceable to the inability to process or produce sounds. Instructional strategies and classroom design should be based on "the uniqueness of each individual student," with great respect for diversity and cultural context (Becker & Bowen, 2018, p. 356). At the same time, educators know that academic achievement in certain subject areas may suffer due to hearing impairments. The primary characteristics of hard of hearing or deaf students are not necessarily based on subject or content assessments but on speech and language characteristics (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). Qualified medical professionals should be entrusted with assessments and with making recommendations for best-practice educational environments.

Defining Blindness and Low Vision

Blindness and low vision, or visual impairments, also occur on a continuum. Measured in most cases by visual acuity assessments, legal definitions of blindness or low vision can be helpful for recognizing the diversity among students. The IDEA definition of low vision stresses the impact visual impairment may have on the student's academic performance, encouraging educators to adapt classroom instructional techniques and the educational environment to offer students alternative means of acquiring and processing information. If the classroom is oriented toward visual information processing, the teacher must make adaptations to include students who have low vision.

Characteristics of students who are blind or have low vision will vary depending on their medical assessments and the cause of their vision impairment. Teachers need to understand that being blind has no impact on general intelligence or the ability to learn (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). Students with low vision may struggle because they are unable to access the same instructional content as their peers, and may also demonstrate frustration in play and social contexts (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). When blind or low vision students are offered appropriate academic and social supports, their performance in school can be at least on par with that of their peers. Students who are low vision do, of course, have different orientation and mobility skills than their sighted peers.

Other Physical and Health Disabilities

Other physical disabilities — including orthopedic and motor impairments or brain injuries — may or may not have an impact on student academic performance. Because this category is broad, it is impossible to offer definitions that apply to the entire diverse cohort. However, students with physical or health disabilities may have impairments that do in fact affect educational performance. Energy level or perceptual and cognitive processing may differ for students with specific physical and health disabilities. Within this broad category, IDEA includes traumatic brain injuries, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, orthopedic issues like cerebral palsy, asthma, heart conditions, and more (Taylor, Smiley & Richards, 2009). The main component of the definition of physical and health disabilities is that the physical issue adversely affects student academic or social performance in school. Characteristics of students with physical and health disabilities will nonetheless vary tremendously depending on the condition, age of onset, and severity of the issue.