How to make a website accessible for the deaf and hearing impaired

Author: Kristen Carter Category: Web Design Date: August 9, 2019

Did you know that about 15% of the American population ages 18 and over suffer from some degree of hearing loss or impairments? With 15% of the American adult population suffering from hearing loss, it is important to have marketing tools and strategies in place that can effectively reach all your potential consumers. A website is a vital marketing tool when trying to capture the attention of your target market. There are various ADA & WCAG requirements that must be met to ensure your site is ADA compliance for all individuals suffering from disabilities. These requirements help to ensure that individuals suffering from hearing loss, blindness, or any other disability; are able to effectively navigate and understand your website.

Design is a key component in creating a website that can be navigated, searched and understood by any and all individuals. You may be asking yourself; how can I make my website accessible for the deaf and hearing impaired through design?  When designing a website to be accessible for the deaf, hearing impaired and many other disabilities, the design must be rooted in the basis of functionality and user experience. Design elements for the deaf and hearing impaired are specific to auditory features within the site. You will want to ensure that all the information

Here are tips for how to improve web accessibility for the deaf and hearing impaired:

1. Provide video captioning

Subtitles or captions should be included at the bottom of each video you add to the site. Captions need to include dialogue, song lyrics, laughter cues, or the sound of applause.

Video transcriptions should not only include the dialogue but descriptions of what is happening in the video It also is required to be accurate to meet accessibility standards. YouTube and Facebook offer free automated video captioning when their videos are created. However, it is important to confirm that those automated tools are creating accurate transcriptions. You can easily caption the videos directly or can even upload the transcript file to the video provided your videos need to be uploaded to YouTube.

2. Provide a summary of audio and video content

Accessibility for videos is important to help end users understand and find the information they are looking for within your website. A summary of the video or audio clip can be a simple list of the topics included in the video. Whether it is podcast accessibility or video accessibility, the summary can be as simple as a list of topics or categories that pertain to the clip.

3. Provide multiple contact options

One of the main goals for a website is to increase conversions and ultimately sales. To make your website and your business as accessible as possible for individuals with hearing impairments, be sure to provide them with a variety of different contact options. For example, provide options such as email, online forms, live webchat, or even Skype.

Web accessibility standards and guidelines benefit a variety of users and individuals. Make sure your business reaching all your users today. Contact us to learn more about how your website can be on its way to becoming accessible to all users.