Hearing disability

Deaf people

Main difficulties encountered

Deaf people will have difficulty with sound information, sound and video files.

For the deaf, whose natural language is the sign Language, reading proficiency can be degraded and make texts difficult to read or understand, especially regarding specialized vocabulary or expressions.

Hearing impairment demonstration

Assistive technologies

There is no assistive technology to help these users. Some experiments aim to produce language signing avatars capable of interpreting a text in real time, but their efficiency has not yet been demonstrated.

It should be noted that, for these users, video subtitling, while it can be of help, is not satisfactory, as it requires fast reading and comprehension capabilities.

People with hearing impairment

Main difficulties encountered

People with hearing losses will have difficulties listening to information provided by sound (videos, podcasts…), it will be annoying or uncomfortable for them when a video includes several people speaking in a noisy environment.

Assistive technologies

There is no web environment specific assistive technology to help these users.

Sources: Impacts on users