| CASE STUDY : |
Isabelle (Québec, Canada) |
|
Isabelle is a student who is hard of hearing and has been
integrated into a regular school setting for many years. Her
audiologist tested her hearing and her lip-reading capabilities.
Following the results of the tests, Isabelle's audiologist
determined that she could benefit from the services of either an
oral interpreter or an AudiSee system for her school
accommodations. The audiologist discussed Isabelle's options
with her and determined that it would be best if she found out
more about both alternatives. Until now, Isabelle was only
familiar with audio-only FM systems. Since Isabelle had never
seen the AudiSee system, the audiologist invited someone from
AudiSoft for an AudiSee demonstration. Isabelle, her mother, her
teachers, the school principal and her audiologist attended the
presentation. When the system was shown to Isabelle, she
responded positively. In fact, when the representative wore the
system and Isabelle was looking at the AudiSee screen, Isabelle
was able to answer all the questions being asked. Needless to
say, Isabelle's mother was very emotional to see her daughter's
response. Although Isabelle was quite impressed with the system,
she still wanted to keep an open-mind and had not dismissed the
idea of having an oral interpreter. It was decided that the best
way to determine which accommodation was best for Isabelle was
enabling Isabelle to try both scenarios during class. Isabelle
was temporarily provided the services of an oral interpreter and
then AudiSee. Based on her own in-class experiences, Isabelle
determined that she preferred to use AudiSee. In order to use
her residual hearing, Isabelle can use either her current FM
system in combination with AudiSee, but she prefers to use a
binaural cable (Y cable) that enables her to plug her hearing
aid boots/shoes into the audio-out plug of the AudiSee receiver. Isabelle began using AudiSee in August of 2002 when she was in grade 7 and has been using AudiSee systematically ever since. |
Please note that all case studies are based on actual events but names were changed in order to keep identities confidential.