Access to an Adapted School Environment for Deaf / Hard of Hearing Children

Abstract

Introduction: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child considers a child with special needs and recognizes that he or she is a full member of society. Children are people with special rights and not passive objects of rights. The school is required to provide the deaf / hearing-impaired child with an environment that is adapted for him / her, and the multidisciplinary team, if necessary, develops an individual development plan. The purpose of the study is to investigate the availability of adapted environments in Georgian schools for deaf / hard of hearing students. Methodology: Secondary data analysis and literature review were conducted as part of the qualitative study. Results: In spite of the responsibility for existing local and international legislation, the creation of an inclusive environment and access to it is a major problem in Georgia. In the case of deaf / hearing-impaired children, adequate access to the physical environment remains a challenge for schools to adapt to FM systems, which consist of a radio transmitter, a microphone and a receiver. The radio and the microphone were attached to the clothes (teachers in this case). The FM receiver
contains the signal receiver and is attached to the child's (listener's) technical equipment. The FM system can be individual and collective. There is also a problem with the level of awareness and relevance in educational systems to create an inclusive environment. In addition, the barrier is the lack of comprehensive national statistics that would allow us to analyze the number of deaf / hard of hearing children in the public and private schools, their individual needs and the real challenges in the schools. Conclusion: It is important to adapt schools to FM-systems, to produce statistics and accurate descriptions of the number of deaf / hearing-impaired children in educational settings, retraining and training of school personnel. You need to train people who have direct or indirect contact with children. One of the bases for implementing a nondiscriminatory approach is to obtain adequate knowledge and experience from specialists.