Roughly, a third of deaf school leavers in Scotland go on to University and Higher Education according to the BBC, and their experiences can be different to your average student.
As a Fresher at the University of Stirling it’s taken me slightly longer to settle in than most. Freshers’ week which is regarded as a week of meeting new people, drinking and parties came with a heavy reliance on lipreading.
The first difference came when I had to tell a flat of nine people I’d never met that I wear hearing aids and listen to them say that ‘their grandad wears hearing aid’ or that they’d ‘never be able to tell’ and not knowing if that was a compliment or not.
I broke the ice by teaching them all how to fingerspell their names in British Sign Language.
Mumbling lecturers who don’t use microphones make my notes as difficult to follow as them. I face the internal debate over choosing to sit at the front of then lecture hall to hear slightly more or sitting with my friends in class, this feels lose lose. My pen races across the page to jot down anything I can decipher.
Sitting in a pub I realised I could only follow about half of the group discussion across the table. The background noise of what felt like the whole uni quickly blurred the noise around me into a cacophony of incoherence.
Social nights feel as though they should come with subtitles.
However, subtitles come in the form of the Accessibility Team who gave me support with hearing fire alarms in accommodation as well as making me feel safe and included.
Support also comes from the Disabled Students Association of Stirling University (DSAS) who represent all students with disabilities throughout university. They say: “we focus primarily on disability activism and empowerment”.
Their impact is felt across campus with the subtle presence of braille signage and the passed motion for the Students’ Union to have an active policy against ableism, which has been passed since 7th October 2021.
However, more could be done for braille signage around the campus according to Delaney Brooks article for Brig last year.
It’s safe to say that adjustment does happen and your differences becomes less embarrassing in university because everyone else is different too. So really, I feel I fit in more in university where everyone’s differences make us all the same.
Featured Image Credits: cottonbro studio via Pexels
