Inclusive Education for Students with Hearing Impairment in Pakistan: Communication & Socialization Challenges at Higher Education

Inclusive higher education is a way to protect the academic rights of young students with hearing impairment. Multiple challenges faced by students with hearing impairment (SWHI) at the higher education institutes (HEIs) affect the inclusive higher education in Pakistan. This study used a questionnaire to explore the challenges faced during communication and socialization by SWHI in the HEIs. Inclusion in Pakistan's HEIs is a recent phenomenon for all persons with hearing impairment (HI); however, HEIs are not wholly prepared to meet this challenge. Studies reported that SWHI face multiple problemsin HEIs worldwide during admission, learning, social adjustment, and assessment. There are a few HEIs in Punjab, Pakistan offering admission to SWHI. So, it is highly desirable to highlight the opinion of teachers and students about the communication and socialization problems of SWHI in these HEIs. Descriptive research method was used to collect data from 48 teachers and 246 SWHI studying in the HEIs of Punjab, Pakistan. Census sampling technique was used to gather the data; moreover, the differences in the opinions of teachers and students were measured using thet-test. The findings of the study highlighted that SWHI enrolled in various programs face communication and socialization problems, such as the non-availability of sign interpreters and note-takers and the lack of direct communication with teachers.


Introduction
Pakistan provides education to future generations as a tool for survival; it is imperative to equip the youth with the skills to interact and build relationships (Government of Pakistan, 2017). Therefore, in Pakistan,quality higher education institutes (HEIs) must be established to equip the students with hearing impairment (SWHI). According to their taste and nature, inclusive education, equitable access and participation of the SWHI at all levels should be readily possible. The provision of an inclusive and equitable quality education (QE) is the major concern of the literature in the developed world, strongly impacting the teachingof the future UMT Education Review Volume 4 Issue 1, Spring 2021 cohorts of HEIs. Unfortunately,QE of HEIs has not received due attention in Pakistan. As a result,the country could not achieve the EFA agenda by 2015 (Government of Pakistan Education Statistics, 2017).
Hearing impairment (HI) is a hidden disability; a studentcannot hear speech sounds and abstracts the meanings of different words due to the inconsistent categorization of sounds. Speakers of different ages and genderproduce different frequencies, durations, and intensities; thus, SWHI remain confused about learninga language (Northern & Downs, 2014). HI is not the reason for poor social adjustment and other psychological snags;instead, these problems result from classroom communication gaps.Parents, siblings, and teachers of SWHI have started to apprehend the importance of sign language (SL). Therefore, it is expected that the communication gap between the hearing and the SWHI will be minimized in the future.The inability to enter into higher educationalso limitsthe ability of SWHI to enter into the respectable job market.It was pointed out by Arsh et al. (2019) that the government of Pakistan is still unable to fulfill the quota of 2% for persons with disabilities. Students with disabilities face numerous problems in HEIs, such as the lack of a differentiated curriculum and assistive technologies (AT), appropriate learning resources, and the absence of trained staff (Bano et al., 2013;Hameed, 2020;Safder et al., 2012;Yasmeen et al., 2010). Hutcheon and Wolbring (2012) drew attention towards the critical examination of higher education policies to determine the strategies and institutional ability of HEIs to cater the individual differences in student abilities. According to them, so far higher education policies are dominated by "ableism",that is, the prevailing notion of ability used to screen students at the time of admission. One such ability is related to socialization and communication; if higher education leads to success, then effective communication is the key to success (Omar & Arif, 2020;Punch & Duncan, 2020).
In Pakistan, the national language is Urdu and individuals with HIwho know a different first language would be considered trilingual if they learn two oral and written languages in addition to the Pakistan Sign Language (PSL). Persons with HI are part of the disability community and remain a cultural and linguistic minority (Alvi & Anis, 2020). Hence, their inclusion in higher education becomes difficult (Hyde et al., 2016). SWHI learn best in a bilingual environment where they are taught in their native SL andthey also read and write in the local language. SWHI are already searching for equitable learning environments in Pakistan.
In contrast, labeling students with certain deficiencies makes them misrepresented members of the equity-seeking groups and shift them towards SWHI have to use frequency modulation (FM) systems to supplement their lipreading because the teacher wears an FM microphone and the students' hearingaids are switched on to receive the FM input. However, SWHI generally do not participate in class discussion. Therefore, the needed resources should be designed according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development,2016. So, to motivate HEIs and to achieve the levels of equity and quality. Inequity expressions pose the challenge of inclusive education searching for a more just and pacific society (Guerrero, 2019;Hameed & Ain, 2020). training, awareness of stakeholders, provision of advance assessment facilities and other ATs are under consideration ofthe Punjab Special Education Department (Akram & Bashir, 2012;Arsh et al., 2019). SWHI face different problems; the ones who rely entirely on SL as their primarymediumof communication howling suffer due to a lack of interpretation services for non-academic activities. On the contrary,thosewho use their residual hearing and lip-reading skills frequently find that different activities within the HEIs are not conducive for their participation (Powell et al., 2014). Socialization for themin HEIs would become easier if they are provideda chanceto mix with sign language interpreters (SLIs).Therefore, they may become fluent in PSL, a standardized format for education. Then comes the challenge of transferring knowledge from the sign language to the written or spoken language (Albertini et al., 2011;Yuknis et al., 2021).
The problems faced by SWHI in the higher education systemare evident and shared worldwide, even in developed countries. Some of the communication problems faced by the Pakistani SWHI were highlighted by Safder et al. (2012). Theseincluded 1) teachers talk fast, so lip reading becomes difficult; 2) inability or sometimes restriction to participate in discussion and question and answer sessions; and 3) the absence of sign interpreters. Students aremost distressed if SLIs are not there to help them. Moreover, few teachers allow them to record lectures. As far as communication and socialization challengesare concerned regarding HEIs accepting diversity, no serious effort had surfaced yet in Pakistan (Arsh et al., 2019).
Inclusion serves the paradigm of acceptance and love; it is involved in creating a learning atmosphere where all students are valued as learners and given equal opportunities to learn (Madaus et al., 2020;Takala & Sume, 2018). Socialization inside and outside the classroom provides opportunities for learning social norms through interaction with peers and by making friends. Limiting the opportunities to socialize threatens the chances to learn and achieve in life. Therefore, there has been a strong call from researchers and practitioners that SWHI should besocially integrated. Despite the dawn of ATs, the acceptance of PSL and the presence of trained SLIs in HEIs is still the need of the time. The use pfsign language encourages the social and communication development of SWHI. So, to achieve academic goals and overcome communication and socialization challenges faced by them, we need continuous adjustment inlanguage planning and policies.

Statement of the Problem
A few public and private HEIs in Pakistan have taken initiatives to accept SWHI, but these HEIs are not fully equipped to overcome the resultant Department of Education Volume 4 Issue 1, Spring 2021 communication and socialization challenges. As a result, SWHI facesuch challenges in HEIs during their studies. Therefore, this research was primarily conducted to obtain the perceptions of teachers and SWHI regarding the communication and socialization challenges they faced in HEIs.

Research Questions
1.What are the perceptions of teachers regarding the communication and socialization of SWHI in HEIs? 2.What are the perceptions of SWHI regardingtheir communication and socialization in HEIs? 3.What is the difference in the perceptions of teachers and SWHI regarding their communication and socialization in HEIs?

Research Methodology
The current research is a descriptive study in nature. Inclusive higher education is a new phenomenon in Pakistan. So, thisresearch was conducted primarily to know the existing situation inHEIs regarding the services provided to SWHI to overcome the communication and socialization challenges faced by them, keeping in view their wellbeing during their studies in the selected HEIs.

Research Instrument
After a detailed review of the literature regarding communication and socialization challenges faced by SWHI in HEIs, subsequent research toolswere formulated: • A questionnaire for the teachers.
• A questionnaire for the SWHI.
Self-created questionnaires were used. They were constructed on a five-point Likert scale consisting of four points including strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree. Both questionnaires comprised two parts. The first part was used to retrieve the demographic information (age, gender, qualification experience, and class).The second part was used to askthe relevant questions both from teachers and students. Relevant experts ensured the validity of the instrument. After validation, items were refined and reliability was measured using Cronbach'salpha. It was 0.81 for the teachers' questionnaire and 0.85 for the students' questionnaire. Punjab were invited to participate in this study following the rule of census sampling, making a total of forty-eight male and female teachers and two hundred forty-six SWHI. Inthis way, maximum participation of both teachers and SWHI was ensured. The researcher personally visited all HEIs and explained the questionnaire through PSLto obtain thegenuine opinions of the SWHI. All teachers of the SWHI personally read the questionnaire before filling it.

Data Analysis
The majority of the teachers who participated in the current study were middleaged and they had taught both in segregated and inclusive HEIs. Most of the teachers were professionally trained to teach SWHI. Most of the SWHI were 17 to 24 years old. They were doing BFA, BS, MA, and MPhil from both segregated and inclusive HEIs. The data gathered from both teachers and SWHI was entered into SPSS. Each item's minimum and maximum mean value was obtained to identifythe weak and strong items. An independent sample t-test was applied to compare the differences in the opinions of teachers and SWHI.The results are presented below.

Results
The demographic distribution of SWHI regarding age revealed that theywere 20 to 23 years old. Frequency distribution of students on the basis of their gender as according to Pakistan statistics 2016-17, the adult literacy rate of males is 69.1% and of females is 45.2%.Gross enrollment ratio (GER) of malesin the higher secondary institutes of Pakistan is 42.9% and the same ratio forfemales is 34.9%. However, keeping in view the gender rate in general education colleges, gender parity in special education is much better. Table 1 presents the descriptive analysis of the responses of the survey items. Table 1 shows the views of teachers. The dropout rate of students with hearing impairment is high in institution, that is,(3.44), (3.25) and (3.06) are having/Statements 2, 1 and 6 have the highest mean values which means that these are all strong statements. So, the results showed that the teachers believed that class fellows help each other to learn lessons and SWHI are recognized as honorable persons in HEIs. The teachers wereindecisive about the dropout rate of SWHI with a mean score of 3.0. Table 2 shows the opinions of SWHI.They did not think that they were respected in their respective institutions, since the mean score of the statement is slightly lower than average. SWHI affirmed that their class fellows helpedthem learn; the mean score is slightly above average (3.03). Thestatement regarding the use of SL and SLIs is available. The statement 'All lectures are interpreted viasign Department of Education Volume 4 Issue 1, Spring 2021 language by SLIs'yielded lower than average mean scores,that is, (1.87) and (1.86). SWHI disagreed with their dropout rate in HEIs.  The independent sample t-test (Table9) showed a significant difference in the opinions of teachers and students about the problems faced by SWHI incommunication and socialization (t =-8.109, Sig. = .000, Mean students= 17.43, Mean teachers = 22.10). According tothe teachers' point of view, SWHI faced communication and socialization problems in HEIs, whereas the SWHI did not think the same.

The Difference in the Perceptions of SWHI and their Teachers
However,SWHI showed consensus regarding the fact that they were not provided SLIs. So, this condition depictsamajor communication issue in HEIs.

Conclusion
The current study strived to identify the communication and socialization challenges in inclusive and segregated HEIs to ensure the access and success of every SWHI and to make higher education more fruitful and relevant to their lives.
Teachers believed that class fellows help each other to learn new lessons and SWHI are recognized as honorable persons in HEIs. All teachers stated that they used sign language while communicating with SWHI in classrooms and their dropout ratefrom HEIs was minimal.Moreover, teachers were satisfied with the services provided to SWHI in HEIs. However, the difference between the opinions of SWHI and their teachers was statistically significant. In the expert opinion of teachers, SWHI suffer from more communication and socialization problems than they can imagine. Contrasting opinions about the use of sign language and the availability of SLIs are also worth noticing, as it can cause severe damage to their learning.
SWHI stated that they lack respect and recognition in the society.They would fall short if their class fellows would not help them in learning lessons. Nevertheless, all SWHI showed consensus regarding the fact that SLIs are not available in HEIs, so that all lectures are not interpreted viasign language.

Discussion
SWHI face numerous communication and socialization challenges across the world and it is also a factin Pakistan (Albertini et al., 2011;Alsalamah, 2020;Datta et al., 2019;Onuigbo et al., 2020;Yuknis et al., 2021). All SWHI expressed their consensus that SLIs are not adequately available in HEIs to meet their requirements. As a result, all SWHI face communication challenges, directly or indirectly affecting their academic success adversely. Pakistani HEIsare still immature inhandling the problems of SWHI and do not really provide them with an enabling and inclusive learning environment (Arsh et al., 2019;Hameed & Ain, 2020;Hussain et al., 2020;Noor et al., 2020).
Moreover, the analysis pointed out that SWHI cannot take notes of daily lectures taught in their classrooms. As a result, theydo not have complete access to the available information. For complete access to classroom information, notetakers should be employed in the classrooms even in the presence of SLIs, so that the SWHI can concentrate on the speaker, interpreter, and other visual cues. These results showed that all SWHI face communication problems at the highest level, although they do not face socialization issues.

UMT Education Review
Volume 4 Issue 1, Spring 2021 Another study by Alnahdi (2014) also concluded that educational institutions lack support services and have limited placements for the staff needed for an inclusive learning environment for SWHI. According to Brett (2010), two interpreters are required to take turns for 15-20 minutes interval at a time for each lecture. Note-takers shouldalso be employed in the classrooms, even in the presence of SLIs, so that all SWHI may focus on the speaker, interpreter, and other visual cues without the distraction of taking notes, simultaneously. Indeed, it is difficult to deal with diversity, althoughit is not justified to leave SWHI unattended (Rao & Skouge, 2015). Samina (2012) suggested that teaching and learning are impossible without effective communication in any classroom. Moores (2001) claimed that note takers are not available before every lecture. Foster et al. (1999) reported that educational settings pose problems for SWHI. Lang (2002) suggested that SWHI withdraw from higher education programs because they face difficulties sincethey cannot communicate easily. SLIs are provided to SWHI irrespective of their HI level to learn in the classroom using PSL.
Inclusive HEIs are the best models through which SWHI can enhance their socialization (Gaydarov, 2014). A positive social environment brings positive social change among students which helps to shape their personalities (Thakur & Abbas, 2017). Teacher awareness and willingness to deal with SWHI is mandatory because teachres are the key resource in HEIs (Bannister et al., 2018).
Students with significant disabilities continue to confront prejudice and physical, social, and emotional barriers in obtaining higher education. Students with a disability are often referred to as a 'burden' or 'obligation'.Moreover, the bio-medical model renders them unfit for the pursuit of higher learning in institutions or disciplines of their choice. Unless challenged at the policy level, this hegemony of 'ableism'will continue to affect the lives of many who could potentially make a difference in their lives by obtaining the higher education of their choice.

Recommendations
1.SLIs should be available all the time and during all lectures in HEIs to facilitate SWHI. It is compulsory forthe retention of SWHI in HEIs. 2.SLIs should be available during and after the class to assist SWHIin reading with comprehension. 3.The quality of education in HEIs should be raised to retain SWHI and to decrease their dropout rate.

Department of Education
Volume 4 Issue 1, Spring 2021 4.SLIs should be employed permanently in all HEIs. 5.Note-takers should be employed in all HEIs. 6.In the absence of note-takers, computerized speech recognition software should be installed in the classrooms to change any delivered lecture into a comprehensible text easily read by SWHI and interpreted by the SLIs after the class. 7.Note-takers should also be available in HEIs during classes to take notes of the delivered lectures,helping SWHIto reread and understand lessons. 8.The shortage of SLIs and note-takers should be overcome in all HEIs.