Digital Accessibility for the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Digital Accessibility for the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing
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For people who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, digital accessibility goes beyond captions. Here are four tips to help you make your digital content more accessible.
When people talk about digital accessibility for the d/Deaf or hard of hearing, the conversation usually ends with captions.
And while it’s true that providing captions and transcripts for audio content is an important part of making sure your website is accessible to everyone, it isn’t the only thing you should do.
In this post, we discuss the different types of hearing impairments and share four tips on how you can make your content accessible for people with hearing loss.
Understanding the Different Types of Hearing Impairment
Before we get started, it’s important to remember that hearing loss isn’t binary. There are different types of hearing impairments, and degrees of hearing loss within these groups:
- Deaf (lowercase): When not capitalized, deaf refers to the condition of not hearing.
- Deaf (capitalized): Deaf refers to the community and culture of deaf people who share the language of American Sign Language (ASL). Members of the Deaf community have typically lived their entire life not hearing, with ASL being their first language.
- Hard of hearing: Hard of hearing refers to mild to moderate hearing loss. Many people with various levels of deafness prefer this term to others.
As you consider ways to make your digital content accessible to people with hearing impairments, aim to deliver an accessible experience for all of these groups.
4 Tips to Improve the Accessibility of Your Audio Content
As you consider ways to improve the accessibility of your audio content, keep these tips in mind. Several are geared toward a specific type of hearing impairment, but we recommend adopting all of them to deliver the most inclusive experience possible.
2. Give People Another Way To Get in Touch
For many businesses, their website is the primary way they connect with potential customers. You want people to be able to easily contact your business, whether they want to book an appointment, place an order, or get more information about your products or services.
For that reason, you should provide multiple contact options on your website. Don’t just list a phone number for your business, as deaf and hard of hearing people cannot hear well on the phone. Offer other ways to get in touch, like email, live webchat, or online forms.
3. Invest in High-Quality Audio
This feels like one of those tips that should apply to videos in general. Of course you want audio that’s crisp, clear, and free of background noise! It’s yet another example of how building an accessible experience often means building a better experience for everyone.
With that said, high-quality audio is central to video accessibility. Many people with deafness still have some level of hearing. People with hearing loss tend to be able to hear better — whether they’re using hearing aids or not — when there is little background noise getting in the way of what they want to hear.
Try to make sure the audio on your site is free of background noise and the sound you want people to hear is clear. As an added bonus, this will also help transcribers hear the audio better and write more accurate transcriptions.
4. Don’t Use Autoplay
There are plenty of accessibility reasons to avoid using autoplay (not to mention the fact that many people find this type of content intrusive and annoying):
- Autoplay doesn’t give viewers time to set up assistive technology (AT).
- People who are hard of hearing often have the volume on their devices turned up. It can be embarrassing if they’re in a public place and your website starts loudly playing an audio file.
- If your audio file is attached to a video that includes flashing elements, you could unintentionally trigger a seizure for certain viewers.
Additional Resources
Want to learn more about designing for accessibility? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Accessible Web Design. Or, dive into our favorite resources on how to support d/Deaf and hard of hearing co-workers and employees:
- Take a free course on deaf and hearing people working together
- Everything you need to know about accommodations, courtesy of the National Deaf Center.
- Get tips on how to host effective and accessible online meetings for deaf participants.
- Discover strategies for supporting deaf employees who are working from home.
- Learn about the Job Accommodations Network (JAN), a federal program that offers free accommodations advice for employees and employers.
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