How do you deal with those writers in a workshop who have difficulty hearing others?
Hearing Challenged Writers Online
by Susan (Deepam) Wadds | Sep 30, 2024 | Finessing and Improving | 5 comments
5 Comments
Submit a Comment Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hhmm. Can’t say I’ve experienced this, but it’s an interesting question. I guess as a first step I’d try to problem solve my way through it. Does it involve a technical, or connection problem? Are any ‘interfering sounds’ present? Either from outside, or from other participants? Are participants sharing or speaking at reasonable (not too soft) volumes? Has this participant tried changing their physical position, and/or orientation – either to fellow participants in a live room, or to their audio source in an online room?
If checking all these things produces nothing helpful, it may just be that this person has a hearing issue. If that is the case, they will also be having difficulties hearing in other settings, and I’d say there is little you can do beyond asking the other participants to please speak a bit louder, whenever they can.
All great ideas Matthew. I sometimes have issues with participants who don’t have great microphones in their computers. They can sound echoey or fuzzy. In that case I ask the speaker to slow down their reading A LOT so that we can hear the spaces between the words, which makes it easier to understand what’s being said. And also of course, speak up, as you’ve mentioned.
Wasn’t sure if the question about “hearing” was listening consciously or simply difficulty with technology. When starting a new session I invite those new to zoom to join early for a quick tutorial, testing. At the beginning, a quick check-in ensure’s everyone’s system is operating. I also require participants to have headphone or earbuds if there is anyone in the house, for the obvious reasons but it helps ensure folks can hear and can be heard. I keep participants muted unless they are speaking. With participants who talk over others or aren’t listening carefully I will step in with a gentle reminder. If it’s a problem, which is rare, I have a private, kind conversation with them.
I have participants who have hearing issues and they use zooms transcription feature to better understand people when they are reading.
Louise, this is great. I didn’t know there was such an option. I’m going to check that out! Thanks so much.