THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING COMMUNITY is a vibrant one with its own culture, language and history. Members of the Deaf community for the most part reject the label "disabled" but instead are more inclined to identify as belonging to a linguistic and cultural minority. Any exploration of website accessibility for this community must acknowledge and respect its cultural values.

So the big question is, how can website designers develop websites with these values in mind that meet federal guidelines for accessibility but also move toward greater cultural sensitivity?

Before exploring answers to that question, let's try to experience website accessibility for a moment from another perspective. Let's suppose that you are Hearing in a world that is predominantly Deaf, you first click on video #1 below:

In video #1 Mark, a member of the Deaf community, describes his experiences with accessing video. No captioning or audio provided.

In video #2 Mark, a member of the Deaf community, describes his experiences with accessing video. Captioning provided. No audio.

How long did you watch video #1 before moving to video #2? Feels annoying, uncomfortable, unwatchable, right?! That's the experience many deaf people have when trying to access video.

To make multimedia presentations (e.g. a narrated PowerPoint) and stand-alone audio elements(e.g. a dog barking) accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing you must add captioning. There are a number of options available for adding captioning, and as technology in the accessibilty arena advances captioning is becoming easier to implement.

A list of captioning resources is included at the end of this article. However, here are some general guidelines for the use of captioning.

Captioning is a good start to make website accessible to the deaf and hard of hard of hearing, but does it go far enough?

As the author of ãGuidelines for Signed booksä wrote, ãDeaf people have their own language and their own culture. It is difficult for a hearing producer to make a Deaf production.ä (Pyfers from Slatin, J.and Rush, S. 2003). While it is true that until technology advances to provide easy to use alternatives to captioning, our most readily available tool is the use of English captioning for English audio elements and multimedia presentations. This, however,does mean as Pyfers suggests that we are essentially making English movies for individuals who are English second language learners. Captioning does not offer full accessibility in the first language of many American deaf individuals: American Sign Language.

So, how can we become less like hearing and more like deaf producers?

Of course, individuals can and do identify differently. However, overwhelmingly deaf and hard of hearing individuals choose to be called exactly that "deaf" and "hard of hearing". The differences between the two definitions are culturally complex, involving matters of self-identification, levels of hearing loss, involvement in deaf culture, etc. and are beyond the scope of this article. The best practice is to refer to both. 

For millions of deaf persons in the United States, the native language is American Sign Language (ASL); millions of other deaf individuals around the world use the signed languages of their native countries (Slatin, J. and Rush, S. 2003). American Sign Language isn't a visual form of English. Linguists have proven that it is a fully realized language with its own syntax, morphemes, and metaphors like any other language, such as Spanish or Russian.

In general, this is a good principle to remember when designing for the web; especially with the knowledge that a large number of Internet users are English Language Learners.

Since the first language of many American deaf and hard of hearing inviduals is American Sign Language, it stands to reason that the most accessible principle for website design is to :

Many deaf people never develop a high level of fluency with English, and may find it difficult to read captioning. Not to mention that in American Sign Language, a great deal of grammatical information is contained in the face and body positioning may contain contextual clues, which are impossible to translate. There is no subsitute for use of American Sign Language for most deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

As technology advances, the future will hold more innovative and culturally sophisticated ways to make websites more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.

Captioning:

• WebAim
• Adding Captioning Using Quicktime

American Deaf Culture:

• National Association of the Deaf
• American Sign Language

Robert Erichsen , Graduate Student
SDSU Educational Technology

Erichsen, R. (2004). Website design for the deaf and hard of hearing.

In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved July 16, 2010.