Difficulties and Disparities to Distance Learning During Covid-19 Period for Deaf Students-A Proposed Method to Eradicate Inequalities

During this critical period the humankind faces, one of the most affected daily activities is the education. Teachers and students of all education levels had to adopt new technological means to overcome the distance and to continue their education. Above and beyond the new prospects that this situation arises, also many problems were raised. For example, the special care education e.g., deaf or hard hearing students, face more difficulties than in ordinary situations. These students either read the lips or have to see their interlocutor's whole body, in order to understand what he/she is saying but this nowadays is almost inevitable. In the unlikely scenario that their school is open, all classroom participants including teacher must wear a face mask, while in distance learning they can see only a small window of their teacher and most likely only his/her face. This paper presents the ways of communication of deaf and hard hearing people and proposes a novel educational tool that with the proper use should help them overcome this difficult situation.