Unmasking educational inequalities: The impact of COVID-19 on deaf students in higher education

本研究项目考察了新冠肺炎对高校聋生的影响。社会疏远措施对聋人产生了特别严重的影响，他们中的许多人依靠面部交流获得许多服务，并与其他人建立关系。对于接受高等教育的聋人学生来说，在他们的整个学生旅程中，需要更多的支持系统来改善机会和包容性，这一点更加复杂。在这项研究中，对聋人学生的广泛定义被用来包括那些认为自己是聋人、聋人BSL使用者、聋人、聋人和重听的人。即使在大流行之前，就已经有了严重的问题。现有研究表明，46%的聋人学生在课程开始时没有得到支持，超过一半的学生等待了两个月以上才得到支持(NDCS，2019年)。社会距离措施对聋人产生了特别严重的影响(《关于听力损失的行动》，2020年)。在以下方面存在认识差距：a)这些对聋人学生的影响的程度和细节b)在大学规划和实施新冠肺炎法规时考虑到了聋人学生c)可能对聋人学生的经历和结果产生的长期影响本项目旨在解决所有这些差距。虽然已经有大量关于流行病对高等教育学生的影响的报道，但在这一覆盖范围内对聋人学生的具体影响明显缺乏代表性。这是一个进行广泛研究的宝贵机会，将探索英格兰、北爱尔兰、苏格兰和威尔士的高等学校的经验。它将采取混合的方法，通过访谈和调查，首先充分了解新冠肺炎对聋生高等教育经历的影响，其次找出可能有助于在短期和长期提供服务时缓解其中一些影响的良好做法。它将为机构对新冠肺炎的回应提供洞察。将探索机构应对措施，如远程工作、在线教学、面部遮盖、在线上岗和课外活动。还将探讨聋人学生使用这些措施的经验，包括对提供人类交流辅助工具的任何特别影响，如口译员、笔记人员、语言支持导师、嘴唇演讲者和聋人视力导游。这项研究将考察在线课堂和更广泛的组织中的包容性和可及性问题。它将审查短期、中期和较长期的机构规划和反应能力，但也将与旨在减轻迄今为止聋生所经历的不利因素的未来做法有关。这项研究试图为支持在校学生完成剩余的学业提出建议。鉴于目前呼吁重新思考高等教育提供的呼声(Hack，2020)，项目组还将与学生、支持提供者和高等院校合作，以便提出最佳做法建议，以加强为聋人学生提供的远程学习。这项研究还为残疾学生组织和国家残疾学生委员会正在开展的工作增加了宝贵的贡献，重点放在应对流行病的挑战上，同时确保残疾学生得到充分的支持。这项研究得到了全国聋儿协会的支持，并建立在他们正在进行的工作的基础上，以提高人们对现有沟通障碍的认识，这些障碍因大流行而变得更加严重。就在线教育聋人学生的最佳实践提供建议方面，它与目前由学生办公室进行的数字教学审查有关，也与Advance HE和其他组织着眼于大流行后高等教育的未来形态的工作相关。

This research project provides an examination of the impact of COVID-19 on deaf students in higher education. Social distancing measures have had a particularly severe impact on deaf people, many of whom rely on the facial communication for access to many services and relationships with other human beings. For deaf students in higher education this is compounded by the number of support systems required to improve access and inclusion throughout their student journey. Within this research a wide definition of deaf students is used to include those who identify as deaf, Deaf BSL users, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing.Even before the pandemic there were significant problems. Existing research showed that 46% of deaf students did not have their support in place at the start of their course and over half of those waited more than two months to receive it (NDCS, 2019). Social distancing measures have had particularly severe impacts on deaf people (Action on Hearing Loss, 2020). There is a gap in knowledge of: a) the level and detail of these impacts on deaf studentsb) what considerations were given to deaf students in university planning and implementation of COVID-19 regulationsc) the likely long term impact on deaf student experience and outcomesThis project aims to address all these gaps.Although there has been significant coverage of the impact of the pandemic on higher education students, there has been a distinct lack of representation of the specific impacts on deaf students within that coverage. This is a valuable opportunity to conduct widespread research which will explore experiences in HEIs across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It will take a mixed methods approach, using both interviews and surveys to firstly gain a good understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on deaf students' HE experience and secondly to identify good practice that might help to mitigate some of these impacts in the short and longer term future provision. It will provide an insight into institutional responses to COVID-19. Institutional responses such as remote working, online teaching, facial coverings, online induction and extra-curricula activities will be explored. Deaf students' experiences of these measures will also be explored including any particular impacts on availability of human aids to communication such as interpreters, note takers, language support tutors, lip-speakers and sighted guides for deafblind people. The research will examine issues of inclusion and accessibility, in the online classroom and the wider organisations. It will examine institutional planning and responsiveness in the short, medium and longer term, but also in relation to future practices aimed at mitigating disadvantages experienced by deaf students so far. The research seeks to make recommendations for supporting current students in the remaining part of their studies. Given the current calls to re-think HE provision (Hack, 2020), the project team will also work in collaboration with students, support providers and HEIs in order to make best practice recommendations that enhancing remote learning provision for deaf students. The research also adds a valuable contribution to the work being done by disabled students organisations and the national Disabled Student's Commission with its focus on the challenges in responding to the pandemic whilst ensuring disabled students are adequately supported. The research is supported by National Deaf Children's Society and builds on their ongoing work to raise awareness of existing communication barriers made worse by the pandemic. In providing recommendations on best practice in teaching deaf students online it has relevance to the current review of digital teaching and learning being conducted by the Office for Students, and the work of Advance HE and other organisations looking at the future shape of higher education post pandemic.