The Centre of Excellence for Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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The Centre of Excellence for Students who are
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
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The Centre of Excellencefor Students who are
Deaf and Hard of Hearing

• Established in 1993
• Provides information, research and advice to
  educational policy makers, and teaching and
  support staff who work with deaf students in
  Victoria.

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The Centre of Excellencefor Students who are
Deaf and Hard of Hearing

• Conducts niche classes
• Runs an interpreter booking service (CABS)
• Produces publications and resources

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Accessibility forDeaf Students

• Printed materials possible literacy issues
• Accessible texts
• Simple English
• Diagrams and infographics
• Auslan translations

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Accessibility forDeaf Students

• Spoken language texts classroom discourse in
  alternate formats
• Auslan interpreters
• Note-taking
• Captioning (DVD)
• Visual learning materials
• Emerging technologies

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Live Remote Captioning

• ADVANTAGES
• Students learn in the same language as they are
  assessed
• It gives access to students who dont use sign
  language
• It may provide an alternative to students who are
  unable to secure interpreting services, such as
  those in rural locations.
• It also dispenses with the need for a note-taker,
  by providing a transcript of the class.

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Live Remote Captioning

• DISADVANTAGES
• Unsuitable for students with limited English
  literacy.
• One way communication.
• Requires microphone set-up, a computer, internet
  access and a telephone line.
• May require additional support staff.
• Cost

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Video Remote Interpreting

• Sign language interpreting via video conference
• Emerging technology, made possible by
• Faster internet
• Better video compression technologies
• More computing power

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Video Remote Interpreting

• Channels for transmission of live video and
  audio
• ISDN
• Public Internet
• VPN
• Communications platforms
• Dedicated videoconferencing packages, e.g.
  Polycom VSX
• Consumer-level software packages, e.g. iChat,
  Skype

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Video Remote Interpreting

• Challenges
• Consistent data flow
• Audio
• User experience
• Skilled support personnel
• Dynamics

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Video Remote Interpreting

• Dynamics of the interpreting setting
• Reduced visual information for the interpreter
• Reduced ability for the interpreter to interact
  with others
• Additional slight delay (lag)

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The Future?

• VRI in other settings
• Codecs tailor-made for sign language
  communication across low bandwidth networks
• 3G mobile devices
• More bandwidth
• Speech recognition