Jim's right about JAWS, etc., being for people who are blind, but not for those who are deaf or hearing impaired. You should have them for others, but they won't help here.
How did you fing out about the student in the first place? Does your school have an office that assists students with disabilities or an ADA officer? Perhaps they can give you help. How is the college handling lectures for this student, for instance? You might even find out how to get in touch with this specific student and find out what works best for him or her, or find out if someone else has that information. Why guess?
You can contact your state's Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped or the nearest sub-regional library and see what they advise. They may even have some technologies you could try out.
Also, get the entire library staff a little training in how to work comfortably with someone with hearing impairments. I'm sure that there are organizations in your area, perhaps those advocating for deaf and hearing impaired people or more generally for people with disabiltiies, that might have someone who could speak on this topic.
Basically, the solution may involve putting spoken word into print some of the time, such as using a computer or a TTY/TTD phone setup to converse. Depending on how profound the hearing loss is, an assistive listening device might also be useful. Perhaps the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped could suggest a couple of vendors who handle these kinds of solutions. They could show you some of the options.
Good luck! This really isn't as major a difficulty as it might seem at first, since people who are deaf or hearing impaired can generally read well and are good students. And your attitude of helpfulness goes a long way.
Audrey
Audrey J. Gorman
Director, Roads To Learning
The American Library Association
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
1-800-545-2433 Ext. 1-4027
Fax (312) 944-8085
E-mail [log in to unmask]
Web page: http:www.ala.org/roads
>>> Jim Fruchterman <[log in to unmask]> 12/12/99 09:50PM >>>
JAWS is great, as is Zoomtext, but they don't do much for hearing
impaired users -- they're designed for blind/visually impaired users.
Jim
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Resources for Hearing Impaired
Author: <[log in to unmask]> at INTERNET
Date: 12/11/99 8:16 AM
Hey Tamara,
If your student is using a computer there are quite a few products you can
use. One is entitled JAWS and it is available both for Windows 95 98 and
NT. It reads all bottons and is very easy to install.It's quite good but
pricey. Check out their site under Henter-Joyce. There is another cheaper
product that only reads what is on the screen, it's called WillowTalk from a
company in Mass. It's rather simple but for home use or if the student has
some sight it works quite well. Only works under 95 but I have been able to
get it to work under NT. There is also magnification software if the
student has some sight. A couple are ZoomText, and a company entitled
Telesensory has a good product that work under Windows.
Good luck
Maggie Berndt
-----Original Message-----
From: Tamara Butler <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, December 10, 1999 3:44 PM
Subject: Resources for Hearing Impaired
>I am new to this listserv and am looking for information on what resources
a
>library can provide hearing impaired students. I work at a small academic
>library and we have an incoming freshman who is hearing impaired. He reads
>lips but does not use sign language. What can I provide him to serve his
>needs?
>
>Tamara Butler
>Trocaire College
>
>
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