The voice within: an online ethnography on the experiences of Deaf students in a public high school in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mark Kevin Prieto Reginio
PMID 41263767WHAT IT FOUND
Deaf students in the Philippines relied on visual communication and peer support to navigate online classes, but faced isolation and learning barriers when teachers prioritized hearing students' pacing and lacked accessible materials like captions.
Key findings
01Deaf students used their shared visual language and peer interactions to maintain community and identity during online learning, often communicating more freely with each other than with hearing classmates.
02Learning was hindered by hearing-centric teaching practices, including fast-paced lectures, text-heavy slides without visuals, and the absence of closed captions on video lessons.
03Students experienced discrimination and exclusion, such as being called 'pipi', having their need for interpreters ignored, and being placed in separate sections or pulled out of class to avoid 'disturbing' hearing peers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study focuses on a single school in the Philippines, limiting generalizability to other contexts. The researcher is not Deaf and had limited sign language proficiency, relying on interpreters who were also teachers, which may have influenced data collection. The sample size of Deaf students interviewed was small (four representatives). The study was conducted during the pandemic, so findings may not fully reflect post-pandemic educational environments.
Declared interests
No specific funding sources or conflicts of interest were declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the students' difficulties as a lack of ability or resilience. The study highlights that barriers were created by inaccessible teaching methods and societal attitudes, not by the students' deafness itself.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →