What it’s all about

Schools often use videos and subtitling for deaf pupils, but City of Norwich School has gone further by pioneering transcripts of online videos, which it shares with schools across the world, writes Sally McKeown.

The school has a special educational needs department and separate hearing-impairment unit with about 20 pupils. Some need one-to-one support as they have very low literacy skills.

Neil Carpenter, senior ICT technician, had been working with ClickView Online video resources for years and looked at ways of using video with deaf learners. ClickView offers access to thousands of videos from organisations such as National Geographic and Getty Images; allows recording from Freeview channels; and lets teachers post materials, such as videos of experiments, sports or interactive whiteboard activities.

But there were problems for deaf pupils. Often, when a teacher showed a video, there would be a signer next to the screen for those who use British Sign Language. This could be distracting for others, so Mr Carpenter started transcribing the videos.

Pupils can print transcriptions before a lesson or access the material at home, where they can work at their own pace. Mr Carpenter has transcribed 65 videos so far and roped in sixth-formers to help. The transcripts are posted on ClickView.

“The hope is that all schools will contribute and share resources, building the largest one-stop video resource database for hearing-impaired pupils,” he says. Visit www.clickview.co.uk2

What else?

Try TES’s Deaf Awareness collection for resources that aim to increase recognition of deaf pupils’ needs and how they can be met in the classroom. bit.lyDeafAwareness.