Effective Training Techniques for People with Hearing Impairment at Workplace

Sign language is a beautiful language and as I had mentioned earlier, its a never ending learning process. I would like to focus on few techniques while conducting any session for People with Hearing Impairment in Sign Language.

Usage of Examples : Yes, examples play a lot more important role while explaining any concept. People with hearing impairment picturize the examples which makes them easy to understand. At times, we may have to give different examples to explain one concept. This will make them understand better. If I have to explain the meaning of role model, I need to give examples of famous people in different sectors whom they can look upto. Similary, for Diversity and Inclusion, I may have to give different examples of Diversity and Inclusion within their organization to make them understand.

Role Play : This is one of the effective modes of conducting session for People with Hearing Impairment. Now when I say soft skills, or behaviour skills, chances are that few won't understand the exact meaning. So I need to do a role play and enact infront of them to explain the meaning of Soft skills. In corporate work environment, soft skills are very much required for People with Hearing Impairment as they need to understand the world and culture outside of their community(deaf community). I still remember one session wherein I was explaining about Email Ettiquetes and I enacted the role of Employee and a Manager to make them understand the concept. Once done, they could easily relate. Another instance wherein I had to enact two different roles to explain the meaning of word Sacrifice :)

Usage of Phrases and Vocabs during conversation: Since their conversations are limited to only sign language, they hardly use any Phrases or Vocabulary in their communication. As a trainer and Facilitator, onus is on us wherein once taught, we should use these words and the respective signs in our daily conversation with Hearing Impaired employees.

Visual Aids : Usage of Visual Aids is highly recommended when training People with Hearing Impairment. Visual Aids esp Videos with Closed Captions, help them to understand the concept easily followed by examples, role plays etc.

Be Open to Learn Signs : Though Sign language is uniform but like any other language it has cultural variations. At times, during training, same signs may not be well received by different hearing impaireds, as they may have some variations in signs based on their native state and culture. Now imagine a situation, wherein you are doing a training for deaf employees pan India. In such cases, we may have different Hearing Impaired people from different states with little bit of variations in their Sign language. As a Sign language Expert, we should be in a position to accept and respect their signs which makes you an expert in language. In one of my training session, I had few Hearing Impaired employees from different states where I also encountered same challenge but was ready to accept and respect their signs. Not only that, we should also ask the origin of sign w.r.t to culture which makes you to remember the signs clearly. The moment you start acknowledging their signs, your respect within the community increases and helps you improve their productivity and team work too.

Move your lips while Signing : As an Sign language Trainer and Facilitator, you should move your lips when you sign as few deaf people are also good at lip movement. People using Hearing Aids, or people with Hard of Hearing, follow lip movement to a large extent. These people wouldn't have learned sign language and they are not able to hear properly. Even their pronounciations and speech is not very clear. In these cases, you may have to speak or move your lips clearly while signing. Also make sure, the signs are clear and is visible to everyone.