Auditory in Diverse Abilities and Barriers, How People with Disabilities Use the Web

Accessibility: It's about people

Note: The examples given in this section are not a complete list of all disabilities or barriers.

Introduction

While multimedia provides many opportunities for people with auditory disabilities, it also poses challenges when content is not designed to be accessible. For example, while video content can be used to communicate information visually, audio content needs to have alternatives, such as transcripts and captions, so that it is accessible for people with auditory disabilities.

To use multimedia, people with auditory disabilities often rely on:

For some people with auditory disabilities, sign language is the primary language, and they may not read the written language as fluently. Providing important information in sign language and using simpler text that is supplemented by images, graphs, and other illustrations help make digital content more understandable to many people. However, it is important to remember that not all people with auditory disabilities know sign language.

Examples of auditory disabilities

Examples of barriers for people with auditory disabilities

Video: Diverse Abilities and Barriers - Auditory

This video is also available on a W3C server: Video: Diverse Abilities and Barriers - Auditory (file format: MP4, file size: 362MB).

Text Transcript with Description of Visuals

Audio Visual
How People with Disabilities Use Digital Technology: Auditory Disabilities How People with Disabilities Use Digital Technology: Auditory Disabilities
Auditory disabilities affect how people hear, including hearing less in one or both ears, not hearing, and hearing sounds in a range of different ways. Collage of four people in different settings using laptops.
High-quality sound is important for many people with reduced hearing. Audio needs to be clear and background noise low to make speech easier to understand. A woman nods as she watches a video on her laptop, but then turns her head trying to hear more clearly.
Websites and apps that allow users to adjust the volume of the audio that it is currently playing without changing the volume for other sounds from the computer, such as notifications, make it easier for people to hear the audio. The woman adjusts the volume of the video from within the video player itself.
Some people with auditory disabilities use hearing devices but this does not always mean they can hear all audio, or hear it clearly. Websites and apps that do not rely on audio alone make it easier for people with different types of auditory disabilities to perceive the information. A man wearing a hearing aid types on his laptop.
This includes using visual alerts and haptic feedback, such as vibration on mobile phones, in addition to audio. A small notification dialog slides in and shakes on the man’s laptop screen in the upper right corner.
Another example of visual alternatives to audio are captions. Captions provide important audio information in text format. They indicate who is speaking and important sounds, such as significant sound effects in a movie. The man is now watching a video with captions turned on. He also adjusts his hearing aid.
Many people who use captions need to adjust the text size, font, and color to make the captions more readable. A zoomed in view of the video player shows a “Captions Preferences” dialog with adjustable options including font, text color, and opacity.
While automatic captions are gradually improving, they are usually too inaccurate to rely on as an alternative. For example, they don’t recognize specialized terms well, and the sentences can sometimes run together making it hard to keep up. Hard to understand captions on a video read “thank you sir oh I’m so happy to be where I’m so thank you I’m trying to”. The man viewing the video sighs out of frustration.
While many people with auditory disabilities do not use sign language, for many it is their primary language. There are many sign languages in different countries, regions, and cultures. Sign language is also different from written and spoken language. That means people are often translating between sign language and written language, and people’s levels of understanding of written language can vary. A man uses sign language on a video call with colleagues. A sign language interpreter is visible along with the colleague currently speaking; the interpreter’s video is “Pinned” to stay in view.
In order to see sign language clearly, people rely on high-quality video transmissions. This includes needing access to high-speed internet and devices that can handle high-quality video. The man now leans into his laptop to see something more clearly.
People with auditory disabilities also include people who are deaf-blind. A woman leans into a monitor which has a magnifiying screen in front of it.
Many people who are deaf-blind rely on communication that is tactile, like braille. Portable braille displays can convert text on the computer to braille letters that can be felt on the fingertips. And for multimedia, like videos, people rely on descriptive transcripts. This is text, such as an article or script, that contains all the audio and visual information so that the video can be understood without watching it. The woman now reads from a refreshable braille display instead of looking at the screen.
You can help make technology accessible to me. Man with hearing aids signs and speaks the phrase, “You can help make technology accessible to me”.
Accessibility: It’s about people. For more information from the Web Accessibility Initiative on how people with disabilities use digital technology, visit w3.org/WAI/people Accessibility: It’s about people; w3.org/WAI/people
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