Auditory Disabilities and Web Accessibility

How do people who can’t hear or partially hear use your website?

Have you ever thought that the video you just uploaded is not accessible to over 5% of the world’s population? That doesn’t seem much right? Well, this percentage translates to 360 million people worldwide.

Auditory disabilities range from milder to moderate hearing loss in one or both ears. Notice that, people who are deaf do not consider themselves “disabled” or “functionally limited.” They prefer the distinction of being their own culture that includes their own form of communication, which is usually sign language.

Some people can still hear some sounds but not sufficiently understand what is actually been said. You might think this is not a huge issue since people can still use hearing aids. Unfortunately, about 10% of those with hearing loss have access to hearing aids while the rest of them, usually live in developing and under-developing countries or they just don’t want to seek medical help.

So, these are some important facts about people with auditory problems:

• Hearing disabilities vary in type (conductive hearing loss, perceptive deafness, crackling tinnitus, whistling tinnitus)
• Hearing disabilities vary in intensity
• Not all of the people with hearing disabilities use hearing aids
• Not all of the people with hearing disabilities know sign language
• Most of the people with hearing disabilities are old
• Hearing impairment can be linked to other health issues (diabetes, depression, etc.)
• U. S law protects people with hearing disabilities

If you want to get a taste of how people with a hearing disability experience the web content you can visit this website here.

How do these people use the web and where do they rely on?

• Transcripts and captions of audio content.
• Media players that display captions and provide options to adjust the text size and colors of captions.
• Options to stop, pause and adjust the volume.
• High-quality foreground and sound that is distinguishable from any background noise.

What are some output design considerations?

First of all, provide text transcripts of audio content. You have to understand that the only way these people receive information is by visual content. Do you want to upload a tutorial and show people how to make pancakes? Then be sure to include captions (also, translate them in google translate), so they don’t confuse salt with sugar. Now get them synchronized with the video content. Just think how annoying it is when the lyrics of a song you like are not included in the video clip or worse they’re not synchronized in the lyric video!

Then, provide live captions with your live video. Most of the online schools or universities don’t use “communication access real-time translation” (a method that it’s used to turn speech into text automatically in live lectures or live streaming). By doing so, people with auditory problems are automatically excluded from the opportunity to participate in online lectures or watch a live broadcast.

Use simple English. Some of the people with hearing loss don’t have highly developed reading skills and even if they use sign language they have limited reading vocabulary. Complicated and long sentences aren’t helping anyone and this is not the time to showcase your writing skills.

In conclusion, try to provide multiple contact details and not only a phone number for obvious reasons.

If you feel that you have a problem with hearing you can visit this website here and do an online hearing test.

References

Striving to Hear in a Digital World: https://theweco.com/striving-hear/

Auditory disabilities: https://webaim.org/articles/auditory/

Types of disabilities: https://usability.yale.edu/web-accessibility/articles/types-disabilities

Web accessibility for people with disabilities: Michael G. Paciello/ CRC Press