Module 2: Auditory
Hearing loss is measured in decibels (dB) and ranges from mild (30 db) to profound (95 dB). Hearing loss may be congenital or acquired, and may occur across frequencies or be limited to high or low tones. Deaf and hard-of hearing individuals may communicate using any combination of speech, residual hearing, sign language, fingerspelling, lipreading, print, or other means.
Barriers to hard-of-hearing or deaf users include:
- Audio narration
- Video
- Background noise
- Multiple people talking at once
- Sign-language-only representation of verbal information
It's worth noting here that there is a often a strong cultural component to deafness, and one manifestation of this is the capitalization of the word Deaf when it is used as a cultural or community marker. Many Deaf people do not consider their deafness to be a disability; instead they regard it as an essential part of their personal identity.
Read Ellie Parfitt's blog post Ten Things No One Tells You About Being a Deaf Teen Links to an external site.. Are there any insights here that are new to you?
Watch
Challenges and Solutions
|
Challenges |
Solutions |
|---|---|
| Audio is unusable | Provide transcripts for audio clips. Provide synchronous captioning for video clips. |
| Sign language is not understood by all users | Include closed captions and/or transcripts. |