Tag: auditory processing

erwinschrodingerofficial:

slightmayhem:

erwinschrodingerofficial:

An open letter to my teachers: captions aren’t “distracting”, they’re a fucking necessity

With the rise of technology in classrooms, it’s pretty much impossible to get through a school day without having to watch an educational video. Here’s the thing though (@ teachers):

Captions are NOT a privilege! You’re not going out of your way or “doing me a favor”. Captions are a necessary support for some students.

(Important note: I am not Deaf or hearing impaired, and Deaf/hearing impaired students are far from the only ones who benefit from captions. Students with sensory issues may need to limit noise at times, and would only be able to watch videos with captions because of that. Students with a variety of learning disabilities may not be able to process auditory information as quickly as they process visual information, like me. And lastly, there are abled students who find they process information better when they read it instead of hear it! Point being, there are any number of reasons why a student might request for you to put captions on a video, but I guarantee you it’s never to cause a disruption.)

In my opinion, it’s pretty bad if you’re not enabling them automatically (putting students on the spot and opening them up to ridicule when they ask for the supports they need is not cool—better to provide the supports in the first place without being asked). But it’s even worse if a student asks for you to turn on the captions, and you don’t listen! And when you make up an excuse like “but captions are distracting!”, that is sending a message to disabled students’ that their needs are less important than the comfort of their abled counterparts.

The only acceptable excuse I can think of for not turning on captions is when the only available ones are auto generated. In which case… Do your job and check before showing the video, and if it doesn’t have captions, then be sure to provide your own captions and/or transcript for the video. And if you’re not going to take the time to do that, don’t show a video in the first place. Furthermore, NEVER assign a podcast/video to listen to for homework unless you know for a fact that there is a transcript or caption option available. A five minute video is a five minute assignment for most abled people. Without captions or transcripts, a five minute video can be a twenty minute assignment for disabled people.

Foreign language teachers: it’s even harder for students to process spoken language when it isn’t their first language, so enable foreign language captions. I understand that enabling English captions defeats the purpose, but at least enable captions in the language of the class.

Teachers, your ableist discomfort surrounding captions is contrary to what you should believe as a teacher. As a teacher, you should want to provide your students with every opportunity to succeed that you are capable of providing to them. Captions take an extra click of a mouse; they are not a burden. If you deny reasonable requests from students that will improve the quality of their learning simply on the basis of your preference, comfort, teaching style, etc., you’re just a bad teacher.

This also applies in workplaces. I am a hard of hearing medical professional and I cannot tell you the number of required videos I have to watch in a year that are completely inaccessible. Hope I don’t need this info.

It absolutely applies to workplaces and other professional environments. It even applies to watching a fun video or going to a movie in theaters with your friends. Captioned movies are hard to come by and only play in theaters a few times a week, and I know that can be hard to schedule around, but they are a necessity.

natalunasans:

dollsahoy:

thehumon:

I suffer from the second kind mentioned here. I felt a need to make this because even people I’ve known for years and who knows about my condition still get angry at me when I can’t hear what they say in noisy areas.

I’ve started making the effort to say, “Sorry, the [whatever it is that’s too-dominant background noise] was too loud and I couldn’t hear you” which feels really weird for me to say but the people around me are getting used to it.  I think.

yeah, i’ll say stuff like (when i’ve answered someone on the wrong side of the room from where the question was) “sorry, i don’t have directional hearing”… or (in a different case) like “sorry, i can’t hear any of you when some of you are being loud,” that sort of thing. 

Source: thehumon

You might struggle with auditory processing if…

jumpingjacktrash:

autisticeducator:

hollowedskin:

notyourneurotypicalgirl:

– Your catchphrase is “what?”

– You ask someone to repeat their question then finish processing and respond halfway through they’re finished repeating it.

– You somewhat processed what someone said but your brain won’t take it.

– You mishear what people say wildly wrong. Like, wildly wrong. Then you process it and it makes wayyyy more sense than whatever you thought someone originally said.

– “Wait, what?”

– Default face is a perplexed, confused look.

– You have to deal with rude people who refuse to repeat themselves and act exasperated at the suggestion, than proceed to get angry when you won’t respond to them and/or remember what they just said.

– You can hear a car door open down the street but you can’t hear someone talking to you in the same room.

– Talking is weird.

– You’re constantly seen as a bad listener (which, maybe isn’t that far from the truth- but they assume you’re not trying), unfocused (which I tend to be, but it’s unrelated), and so on. Nobody stops to consider that maybe you have processing issues.

– You were tested for hearing issues as a kid because you didn’t respond to people or talk much, but every test came back negative and your parents were told you have perfect hearing.

– The idea of talking to two people at once is terrifying beyond imagining.

– Responding to something someone said ages ago, even with a different conversation still going, the topic has moved on, and everyone forgot about it.

– “Huh?!”

bonus round:
we can watch TV or talk. not both.

And no one without auditory processing issues understands any of this.

– you watch tv with the subtitles on even though your hearing is fine

– listening to podcasts makes your brain tired like you’ve been doing big scary math

– in a chattering crowd, all you hear is white noise