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Schools

Hearing Impaired Student Encourages Self-Advocacy

Lincoln-Way North High School's Rachel Trudeau wants students to know this: You can do so much if you try. Her self-advocacy earned her an Advocate of the Year Award at Ninth Annual Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advocacy Event in April.

junior Rachel Trudeau has always had a conductive hearing loss in her right ear, which once affected her ability to communicate easily.

However, the self-advocacy skills that she's acquired over the years seem to have made just as much of an improvement as the hearing aid she uses.

"My hearing itinerant told me it's the best thing I can do for myself," Trudeau shared.

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"But when you're little it's hard because you're embarassed to say anything. It's easier now," she added.

Being a self-advocate means that Trudeau does things a little differently on the first day of class. Her primary goal is to explain to all of her teachers how her hearing loss can impact her learning and talk with them about what she needs to do to succeed.

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One request Trudeau makes is to sit in the front of the room. She also has a "better" ear, so she chooses a seat where she can easily turn and maximize what she hears out of that ear.

Having grown more comfortable talking to people about her hearing loss, Trudeau had no reservations asking her physics teacher, Peggy Piper, if she could teach a lesson during their unit on hearing.

"It turned out she had wanted me to help her anyway," she said.

Trudeau walked the class through the parts of the ear, using an oversize model, and covered frequencies and loudness using herself as an example of what she could and could not hear when her back was turned.

"At the end I taught them a little sign language. My friend said she liked it because it was learning about hearing first hand," Trudeau added.

Because Trudeau's hearing itinerant Sarah Spoerl had nominated her for an Advocate of the Year award, the phsyics lesson was videotaped, along with interviews between Trudeau and Piper. Trudeau then worked with Lincoln-Way North High School instructional technologist Patrick Shaughnessy to edit the video down to two to three minutes and submit it to the advocacy contest sponsored by area special education co-operatives.

"We had to present the video at the (Ninth Annual Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advocacy Event) event (in April)," Trudeau explained.  "I was so excited when the video came on. Kids of all ages watched it, and they said it was really cool."

As part of her , Trudeau received a $500 scholarship to be put toward attending a summer leadership camp. She is still reviewing her options but is leaning toward one in Washington, D.C., held at Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf and hard of hearing.

"I'm really glad I was able to share and tell everyone in the class. It's (hearing loss) not really something to be ashamed of because you're not the only one who has it," Trudeau said.

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