In today's face-to-face classrooms, deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students are one of the major types of students with disabilities who face various challenges in the classroom. Given the current technological advancements, DHH students still face the challenge of inclusivity in the classroom. DHH students form their perceptions about their inclusion in the classroom based on their prior and ongoing experiences in the classroom. We have created a prototype by integrating real-time captioning and live transcription for DHH students to help them follow the proceedings of the class. We focus on existing machine-based captioning systems that leverage automated speech recognition (ASR) and artificial intelligence-based web applications for live transcription. We used in-class observations to collect information regarding students' perceptions of the prototype and evaluate its usability. We found that the prototype has the potential to help DHH students follow lectures and class discussions, enabling them to keep up with their peers and participate in the learning process. Overall observations show that DHH students used transcript and captioning data to participate in class discussions and peer activities and appeared to be satisfied while keeping pace with classroom instructions.

In semester-long courses, the trajectory of students' interest hits multiple highs and lows as the course progresses. In general, sustaining students' interest is a challenge, which becomes even more important when there is a real-world project with an expected deliverable. This study emphasizes investigating how instructors’ strategies help in sustaining students’ interest in instructional system design (ISD) course. The course participants developed a real-world project involving training resources for sensitization about the needs and challenges of persons with disabilities (PwD) in an educational institute. We have analyzed interview data of fifteen students and one instructor, survey data of the same students, and In-class observations by researchers. We have identified instructors’ strategies which were implemented thoughtfully and supported by interest-driven creator (IDC) theory. We have mapped indicators from student responses to the components of the interest cycle i.e. triggering, immersing, and extending. The findings of the study show that course strategies supported by IDC theory played an important role in sustaining the students’ interest throughout the ISD course while ensuring both conceptual learning and project execution.

Concerns about the writing proficiency of deaf students in the English language are well known and persistent. Many of them prefer to write concise sentences with fewer adjectives and adverbs and exhibit a variety of syntax usage errors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a learning intervention created to help DHH students who struggle with sentence formation. The users played with the digital prototype and the perception of the usability of the intervention was analysed and represented using a thematic analysis. Primary insights on the usability and design of this game-based early intervention revealed that the content was well received but more gamification components must be added for the intervention to be both enjoyable and pedagogically valuable. Incorporating more gamification components, conjugating verbs, and studying the effectiveness of the intervention in addressing the difficulty of DHH students in framing sentences will be the focus of the future extension of the study.