Applied Academics

Helping Others Hear

Audiologist
Technical and Professional Communications 12

Lesson Idea by: Heather Leask, School District #83
(North Okanagan-Shuswap)

Audiologists are faced with a unique communication problem: their patients either can't hear or cannot hear like someone with normal hearing.

"Using the telephone is not something that we can assume patients can do with a regular phone," says Dr. Kathy Pichora-Fuller, audiologist in the school of audiology and speech sciences at the University of British Columbia. "There's a need to have special devices, and the different devices are going to depend on the nature of the hearing loss."

Audiology clinics must have special equipment so patients are able to contact the staff. One of these devices is known as a TDD, which is an acronym for Telecommunication Device for the Deaf. It is a telephone specifically made for people who are deaf. A patient with a TDD communicates by typing and receiving written messages.

Clinics also use other assistive communication devices, such as portable amplifiers, in order to communicate with patients who do not or cannot use hearing aids.

"Many hard-of-hearing people like using the Internet or the fax, because it allows them to communicate without worrying about whether they heard properly or not," notes Dr. Fuller.

Imagine you're an audiologist in a mid-sized B.C. community. A number of your patients have complained about not being able to easily communicate with city hall. You have agreed to write a letter on their behalf, recommending the city invests in assistive communication devices.

You must plan this letter well. You must provide accurate information on the devices available for the deaf, since city hall representatives are likely to have little knowledge of the subject. Your letter must list advantages and limitations of each type of device. City officials will also want to know the approximate cost and availability of each type of device.

Research the field of assistive communication devices, and TDDs in particular. You may use the Internet or your local library. You may also contact your telephone company for information on special services provided to people with disabilities.

Research the following areas:

  • What does "hearing impaired" really mean?
  • How do people who are unable to hear know when the telephone is ringing, when a smoke alarm is buzzing or when someone is ringing the doorbell?
  • What are some of the different types of assistive communication devices?
  • What is a TDD, and what does it do?
  • What are the different types of TDDs?

The following information is based on Margot Northey's text, Impact: A Guide to Business Communication, 3rd Edition, (Prentice-Hall Canada Inc.,1993) pages 93-98.

When persuading someone, it's important to consider how credible the reader will consider you. After all, the more credible you are to the reader, the easier it is to persuade them. Credibility is determined by:

  • whether or not you hold any power over the reader;
  • your level of expertise on the subject matter;
  • your reputation for trustworthiness; and
  • how similar you are to the reader.

When drafting a persuasive letter, take the time to consider the reader's needs. If you can appeal to those needs, the reader is more likely to take the action you're persuading them to take. Once you understand the reader's needs, you must then decide how to shape your message to appeal to reason, emotion, authority or verifiable evidence.

The basic order for a persuasive letter is:

  1. Get the reader's attention. This opening attention-getter should be brief. At the most it should be a short paragraph of three sentences.
  2. Introduce the proposal or product and persuade the reader of the benefit. Build interest by showing how the proposal or product fills a specific need. Anticipate any objections and answer them.
  3. Indicate the action the reader must take. Link the act to the benefit.

You can use a device called the CMAP strategy to help you to write a persuasive letter to city hall. The letters stand for content, message, audience and purpose.

The strategy asks the writer to match the message of a presentation to the interaction between context, audience and purpose.

  • Context -- anything that might influence audience response
  • Message -- precise details to get the job done
  • Audience -- primary and secondary
  • Purpose -- immediate, mid-range and long-term

In planning a presentation using the CMAP strategy, begin by identifying the obvious context, basic message, immediate audience and primary purpose. Then consider the audience and their goals to determine precisely what information they need or want from you in order to act.

To help determining the CMAP, ask yourself the following questions:

Context -- anything that might influence audience response

  • Is this message independent or the beginning, middle or end of a longer process?
  • What is your relationship to this audience? First contact or established association?
  • Degree of familiarity? How formal or informal is the setting?
  • Do you have any competition -- past, present or future?
  • Is the audience expecting to hear from you?

Message -- precise details to get the job done

  • What is the basic message of this document or presentation? (Say this with an action statement)
  • Should a secondary message be included? Stated explicitly or implied? Why?
  • Given the audience and the context, how should you word the purpose and action statements?
  • What precise amounts, dates, times, etc. will this audience need or want before they act on your message?
  • What's the core message? Are any secondary messages required?
  • What explanations will help improve the audience's understanding?
  • What details would best be presented as graphics, figures or tables?

Audience -- primary and secondary

  • Who is your primary audience? (Focus on it.) Who else is likely to see this message, now or at a later date? Consequences?
  • What does your audience already know about this matter? Need to know? Want to know? How technical or specialized should the message be?
  • How will your audience benefit from this message? How can you make this benefit clear to them in the message?

Purpose -- immediate, mid-range and long-term

  • What do I want your audience to do or think immediately after receiving this document or presentation?
  • How do you want the audience to respond over the next few months?
  • What do you want from the audience in the next few years?
  • Are you informing, persuading, explaining, advising, recommending, evaluating, describing, proposing or doing something else?
  • Why is this message needed? Now? Are deadlines involved? If so, have you specified them?

CMAP Instructional Strategy was developed by David Wiens,
Kwantlen University College, British Columbia. © 1998

You are just about to open your own clinic with two other health professionals. One is a physiotherapist and the other an eye surgeon. You want to have several assistive communication devices in the clinic and you want your partners to share in the cost of their purchase. You expect your patients would be more inclined to use the services of your partners if such devices were available.

Write a persuasive letter to your partners asking them to consider jointly purchasing the necessary equipment. (Hint: This audience is more knowledgeable about health and impairment in general than is the previous audience.)

Solution

Do you have a great solution to this problem? If so, please submit it to us and we will publish it here on the Internet. Send your submissions to Vickie Shillington.

Course/Grade: Technical and Professional Communications 12
Curriculum Organizer(s):
Reading viewing and listening (Research 1 and 11), Writing, representing and Speaking (Products and Presentations 1)		 Curriculum Sub-organizer(s):
Employ a variety of research tools and resources; independently compile information and ideas from a variety of secondary sources; determine when research may be needed and devise strategies to conduct it; gather, analyse, organize information; create effective communications products; write persuasively.
Prerequisites:
Experience with the writing process; correct usage of structural elements for standard formats of technical and professional communications; understanding of CMAP strategy (as outlined in lesson).		 Resources:
Internet access; access to other information sources including library, health centre, telephone company.

 

Solution A
(This section contains brief answers to the questions listed in the Practice section.)

In general terms, audiologists diagnose, evaluate and treat hearing disorders. They can work in hospitals, educational settings, in rehabilitation, or they can work in private practice. Some work exclusively with children or newborns, but the vast majority of audiologists work with senior citizens whose hearing becomes impaired with age.

"A lot of hospitals that work with patients who have hearing loss to the point where they cannot understand anything at all on the phone," says Dr. Kathy Pichora-Fuller, audiologist at the University of British Columbia. "So they have a special machine set up, similar to what the patients have at home. Patients can type and transmit directly to the hospital, and someone at the hospital can respond. Everything shows up as typing. It's totally happening visually, instead of by hearing."

1. Different types of assistive communication devices include: telephone amplifiers; telephone devices for the deaf (called TTDs or TTYs); radio/television amplifiers; signaling devices; personal amplification systems and devices for professional people (such as portable amplifiers).

2.The telecommunication device for the deaf (TTD) is a telecommunications device that has a typewriter or computer keyboard and a readable display that couples with the telephone. The TDD allows messages to be typed, rather than spoken. The device allows a person to make a telephone call directly to another person with similar equipment. The conversation is typed and the message is transmitted from one machine to the other.

3. Someone who is unable to hear could use a visual alert, like a flashing light or a fan, to notify them when a telephone, doorbell or smoke alarm sounds.

4. Different types of TTDs include: non-printing TTDs; printing TTDs; portable or compact TTDs and the uniphone (voice and TTD).

5. "Hearing impaired" includes those persons who are certified to be deaf, deaf-blind, or hard of hearing, as well as those persons who are certified to have a hearing disability which limits their access to telecommunications.