A Day In My Life as a Deaf High School Student
By Tessa Brannigan, Illinois H&V
In class, I switch between the different closed captioning devices depending on whether it is the Luna Mic that I use during group discussions or the Roger NeckLoop which is used when the teacher is lecturing.
When I think about a typical day as a deaf high school student, my day technically starts the night before. Prior to getting ready for bed, I must prepare my cochlear implants for school. I remove my processors, slipping the receivers off to retrieve the used batteries and plug them into the rechargeable storage unit so they’ll be ready in the morning. I then place my processors in the Dry and Store unit, and when the blue light turns on, I know it’s working correctly.
The following day, I wake to my alarm clock in the morning; it shakes my bed enough to wake me so I can start getting ready for school. I prefer a quiet start to my morning, so I leave my implants off. I gather my school supplies into my backpack, put on makeup, and do my skincare routine, then return to my bedroom to assemble my cochlear implants the same way as in the nighttime routine, but in reverse. I place the spare batteries in my implant bag, then into my backpack, where they will be waiting when a battery loses its charge. Before heading out the door, I always make breakfast and scroll through social media while reading the closed captions. The last thing I do before leaving for school is finally putting my implants on so I’m ready for the day.
After I walk through the school door, I head down to the nurse’s office, where I pick up my FM systems, my Luna microphone that captures sound 360° around me, and my closed captioning microphone. I turn all these devices on and then sync them to my receivers. but I especially look at the FM touch screen to make sure it is working since this is the microphone that my teacher uses for lectures. I know it is working correctly when the indicator light blinks green and I double-check that the microphone strap is adjusted to the correct length to be correctly positioned for when my teachers wear it for all of my classes. I always enter the room with the microphone ready for my teachers in advance. In class, I switch between the different closed captioning devices depending on whether it is the Luna Mic that I use during group discussions or the Roger Neckloop which is used when the teacher is lecturing. Both devices are connected to my computer using Bluetooth, so I can see what is being said using captions. The teachers know to press the mute button when they talk to other students individually so that I don’t hear conversations. However, I occasionally have to remind them to unmute themselves when they begin presenting to the entire class again. At the end of the day, I return all of the microphone equipment to the nurse’s office, where I store them and they charge overnight.
Every day after school, I practice for two hours as a competitive figure skater, doing lots of spins, jumps, and Edge work. When I first started skating, it took a while before we could figure out how to keep my implants on my head. Initially, we tried headbands, clips, and tape, but nothing could keep them on, especially during the faster spins and the jumps. but we finally figured it out. In addition to using ear molds, I used toupee tape to keep the processors on behind my ears while I cover my coil magnet with my hair, pulled tight into a ponytail or bun. I sometimes also clip barrettes over the cables that connect my processors to the magnets for extra security.
When I get home from skating I need to immediately start doing homework and begin hours of studying. Depending on the day, I either want to listen to music or at other times take the opportunity to study in silence by taking off my processors. If I want to listen to music, I use my over-the-ear headphones to cover the microphones on my processors. Sometimes I take them off entirely and put them in my drying store case to allow me to focus more in silence, as I do when I feel overstimulated. My mom always knows the possibility of me choosing to be deaf while I study, so she will text instead of call me down to dinner. After I finish my homework, I like to relax, watch a show, scroll through social media, or snuggle with my dog. At the end of the night, I repeat the same steps as I did the night before to be ready for another day at school. ~
H&V Communicator – Spring 2024