Challenges and trends in the use of technology by hearing impaired students in higher education

1. Introduction

Today’s society is fundamentally characterised by two factors: on the one hand, its great diversity, both in terms of cultures, contexts and individuals that are articulated in a social, political, and economic framework, which means that people share a series of characteristics that make them similar and others that make them unique. Ensuring that these differences are not elements that generate exclusion is one of the challenges facing today’s education systems. An education where all people have a place and at the same time progress to the maximum of their potential. This presupposes the presence of three fundamental indicators: quality, equity and inclusion. Quality and equity are crucial to ensure inclusive education. This educational model has been internationally endorsed [1]. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education in the European 2030 Agenda calls for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, emphasising the importance of inclusion and equity as the foundation for quality education and learning. On the other hand, the continuous and accelerating transformation by technology, which is bringing about a radical change in the ways of doing, acting and training. This technological revolution has affected all sectors of our society, including education.

This new scenario requires higher education institutions, as guarantors of a country’s economic, cultural and social development, to adapt immediately, where the use of technology and its potential benefits for all students is undoubtedly one of the basic principles of this way of training and educating future citizens within the framework of advanced and inclusive training systems. This is even more necessary in the case of hearing impaired students, since the use of technology can support and stimulate with greater objectivity, the analysers available to the student, and thus, make up for the deficit of the analyser with low or no functioning, in the case of deaf students, using technologies that stimulate the visual analyser, which is decisive in their learning [2].

The auditory and communicative development of the population with hearing and communicative impairment, users of aids with the support of interactive environments mediated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), has meant thinking of digital technology as a possibility of inclusion for people with hearing and communicative difficulties through the creation of innovations and technological developments as a contribution to the solution of these problems.

In this sense, the work we present aims to evaluate, through different variables, both bibliometric and thematic, the scientific production on educational attention to students with hearing impairment in higher education, with the support of technology, indexed in the selected electronic databases, in order to detect the limitations and project new challenges.

In other words, the research will be carried out taking into account the following basic questions in terms of: what we know, what we need to know and what we can do, in educating hearing impaired students with ICT support. In essence, these questions are part of the research process: (a) literature review: what we know, (b) research findings: what we need to know, and (c) implications: what we can do.

We believe that this work is necessary for several reasons. Firstly, it contributes to increasing the field of knowledge in relation to ICT and hearing impairment. Secondly, the information obtained contributes to a better understanding of the knowledge structure of the scientific domain of ICT and hearing impairment by analysing research articles published in high impact journals. In this way, by identifying the lines of research and their interconnections, based on the information contained in the databases analysed, the understanding of this knowledge structure will be promoted. And, finally, knowledge of the scientific production analysed will provide insight into the development and evolution of technologies in these people with special educational needs, making an effective contribution to the reduction of the possible digital divide due to disability.

2. ICT and hearing impairment in higher education

3. Method

In this study we conducted research on ICT for students with hearing impairment in Higher Education in the period 2010–2020 through a systematic review of the literature. Information was collected from 17 scientific studies from the WoS, Scopus and ERIC databases to find out the status and evolution of research based on the analysis of the most relevant characteristics (authors, year of publication, geographical location, and objectives) and the identification of the central and emerging themes in this field of research. The results have made it possible to answer the research questions, showing the findings detailed below.

RQ1. How do studies address the use of ICT for hearing impaired students in Higher Education?

During the period analysed (2010–2020), there is a significant growth in the publication on the use of ICT with hearing impaired learners in Higher Education. This growth is more accentuated from 2017 onwards. This increase and interest in scientific production on the use of technology for students with hearing impairment can be explained by the progress in the implementation of technologies in education in recent years [37]. With regard to the countries of origin with the greatest progress and dissemination in this field of knowledge, the research identifies a total of 14 countries, of which the most prominent country is the United States, coinciding with previous studies [37].

In terms of the type of methodology used to analyse the field of study, studies based on qualitative methods stand out, followed by those that use quantitative methods.

RQ2. What challenges influence the use of technologies with these students in university classrooms?

The study objective of the research analysed is mainly based on three aspects: the limitations of ICT use, the benefits of ICT use and the use of ICT as an innovative and didactic strategy with hearing impaired students in Higher Education.

Analysing each of the objectives we can highlight the following findings:

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ICT as innovative and didactic strategies: ICT are very varied in the market, but in the field of hearing impairment in Higher Education, the following tools stand out: wireless hearing aids, visual or tactile aids, mobile sound amplifier devices, or speech-to-text systems [34].

Real-time speech recognition technologies is one of the innovative didactic strategies in this field, which can be used to generate the live text of the teacher’s presentation in the classroom. This text will be available in an application for the students. The idea of real-time captioning of lectures can be one of the didactic and inclusive tools for hearing impaired students. Previous studies show that the use of real-time captioning increased the comprehension of content in lectures in higher education [38].

Technological developments and innovative teaching practices favour the process of inclusion of students with hearing impairment in the university context, highlighting the importance of sign language, accessibility and the use of mobile applications as tools that favour the educational development of these students. Findings that coincide with those made by McNaughton & Light [16] and Truscott [17].

•

Benefits of using ICT: technologies can reduce and minimise communication barriers for students with hearing impairment. In addition to breaking down language and communication barriers, these tools allow for greater inclusion of students with hearing impairment in the university environment [26].

Among the main benefits and factors that influence the use of technologies with hearing impaired students are increased motivation, memory, access to class materials and fostering interaction and participation with peers [21, 24, 33].

Evidence based on ICT has been shown to improve the academic performance of these students, specifically reading comprehension skills [29], as well as the oral expression of these students [35]. Thus, through the study we can observe the relevance of ICT as a teaching strategy in the educational process of students with hearing impairment, and how these tools favour the university inclusion of these students [22].

•

Limitations of ICT use: Among the limitations are the digital training of teachers. Teachers are not necessarily trained and prepared to attend to students with hearing impairment [23, 39]. This leads to a rethinking of teacher training in order to improve pedagogical teaching practices. The learning of future teachers should be based on learning knowledge and skills to improve the inclusion of university students with disabilities in our classrooms.

Another challenge for the inclusion of students with hearing impairment in higher education is the availability of ICT resources, i.e. many of the resources and electronic media do not meet accessibility guidelines, limiting access to information and communication, as well as the quality of learning for students with hearing impairment.

Voice clarity is one of the main barriers affecting students with disabilities. In fact, distance education for deaf students during the pandemic situation has been evaluated by different experts, who speak of a complete failure [40] due to different problems with audio.

RQ3. What possible trends are there for future research in this field?

Analysing the emerging keywords, we can firstly talk about technological empowerment, i.e. it is a new terminology assigned to technologies that are used to support the active and social participation of a specific group of people [41], in this case students with hearing impairment. Thanks to the use of these technological tools, these students will be able to actively participate in education and improve the quality of life of these people. Their use will therefore facilitate the socialisation and inclusion process of these students, key aspects in future research.

Another key aspect of future research is the creation of new learning environments through technologies to improve the teaching-learning process of these students. In this way, real-time speech-to-text subtitling systems are highlighted. This real-time technology is still in its infancy, but it is a promising solution for upcoming courses in higher education [34].

6. Conclusion

The presence of students with hearing impairment in the university context has increased in recent years, however, these students still face significant barriers to access information and to the development of the teaching-learning process in the university classroom.

There is a lack of authors addressing the use of ICT for students with hearing impairment [30], as well as the effectiveness of these tools and services available to students [36]. The scarcity of research on the use of these technological tools to support the education of these students means that teachers and students themselves are unaware of the possible solutions and support services for these problems. Among them are the possibility of interpreters, note-taking tools or real-time captioning (an interpretation of live spoken dialogue) whose use has a direct impact on the academic performance and motivation of these students [25, 28, 31].

Thus, the lack of training, mainly for teachers, stands out as one of the main barriers to the inclusion of these tools. Studies suggest that if the right digital tools were provided these students could be more successful in their university career [26, 27]. Teachers are the main individuals who interact with these students [36], therefore, the study raises the need to rethink teaching practice, by proposing new challenges that allow us to generate our pedagogical strategies with technologies, as well as the implementation of training courses in order to improve their digital literacy in ICT for students with hearing impairment in Higher Education.

Author contributions

CONCEPTION: José María Fernández Batanero, Marta Montenegro Rueda, José Fernández Cerero and Santiago Alonso García.

INTERPRETATION OR ANALYSIS OF DATA: José María Fernández Batanero, Marta Montenegro Rueda, José Fernández Cerero and Santiago Alonso García.

PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: José María Fernández Batanero, Marta Montenegro Rueda, José Fernández Cerero and Santiago Alonso García.

REVISION FOR IMPORTANT INTELLECTUAL CONTENT: José María Fernández Batanero, Marta Montenegro Rueda, José Fernández Cerero and Santiago Alonso García.

SUPERVISION: José María Fernández Batanero, Marta Montenegro Rueda, José Fernández Cerero and Santiago Alonso García.

Ethical considerations

This study, as a literature review, is exempt from Institutional Review Board approval.