My partner works with people with disabilities and, as a web designer, we’re always talking about how to come about new ideas using software that we can create interesting programs for childeren with learning disabilities. One of the main problems from a developer’s point of view, is building applications that take into consideration all the different types of users and all their varying abilities and disabilities, eg. childeren with Cerebal Palsy have a diverse spectrum of physical abilily and some of them have intellectual disabilities. The problem becomes how do you create an application that is accessible for all users?
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nori kuro
The author, Lisa Herrod, makes the case that web designers should consider the Deaf community as a distinct culture versus a “˜disabled’ population. The article is focused on the author’s experience with the deaf community and her understanding that the Deaf community is a “linguistic and cultural minority group, similar to an ethic community.”? She uses the big D, as you would the big I for the Italian community, the big C for the Chinese community and so on.
This is an important understanding as the present understanding from the web community is that deafness is the opposite of blindness. If we make audio captioning available, as we do alt text on an image for the blind, we have solved the usability issues for the deaf.
This oversimplification is the wrong approach for designing web content for the Deaf community. Herrod does point out that in the last 18 months, the web community has become more aware of deafness and how it influences the design of web pages. But this focus is still on captioning, “transcription of speech and important sound effects”? and subtitling which is “written translation of dialogue”?.
Herrod goes further to make several points that all web designers should consider.
The first point is that in the Deaf community they “speak”? sign language. Sign languages are “˜visual-spatial’ and many elements of these languages do not have a natural written form. Deaf people rely heavily on facial expression to convey essential meaning and emphasis, and there is no direct written translation for these meanings and emphasis.
Another important point is that direct translation will not always work, phonetic based language i.e. English, can be mid-leading. Herrod uses the example of the phrase, “once in a blue moon”?. This phrase means occasionally or once in a while, but when translated into a signed language, the meaning of blue moon can be ambiguous or misleading.
English as a language uses many synonyms while there are very few used in signed languages. Sign languages rely more on facial expression or body language than it does on other words with similar meaning.
These are all important points that present a challenge for anyone designing for the web.
Herrod does make a case for several solutions to this problem. There is no single solution, but there are several things that can make a website more user friendly for the Deaf community:
“¢ Reference Writing for the Web 101
“¢ Use more multimedia
These suggestions are very important and would make any website that is being targeted to the deaf community more usable for them. The use of multimedia is really key, as a deaf person, I always rely on any medium with video or visual access. It is hard to understand from written language what is the meaning. Also, as a Japanese native speaker, the point of a discussion always come first, this makes communication much easier. Once you establish what you are talking about, it is easier to comprehend.
This is a very good article because Lisa Herrod has really attempted to explain what the Deaf community is about. The concept that it is a community, with their own language should be the starting point web design.
Yours is an interesting question:
bq. How do you create an application that is accessible for all users? bq.
The problem is that it isn’t really possible. I think the best we can do is focus on making a site that is accessible to as many people as possible.
Accessibility specialists such as Brian Kelly and Liddy Neville have been writing about building for ‘Adaptability’, which focuses on creating accessible sites taking an holistic, inclusive approach that considers the primary user groups, purpose and context.
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Luk10
Thank you, Lisa, for the article. However, for most part you are biased towards sign language which is accessible only locally to a tiny group of Deaf people – like Kerri Hicks explained in her #39 post:
“If Deafness is not a disability, but a culture, why should this particular community bubble to the top for attention ahead of others — many of which are more populous?”
Should we try to squeeze 5 different sign language interpreters (ASL, BSL, etc.) into one screen to “translate” one spoken English and on top of this being covered with captions – one row in “normal” written language and another row in “plain” language with a glossary for “specialized” vocabulary? ;0) That would be very interesting and indeed very confusing to watch.
I totally agree with Joe Clark that captioning is the main thing that we have been fighting for years and is accessible to much more people than just those who have hearing loss. It is the number one priority we should focus on right now.
Do you have any user research or any hard data to prove how many Deaf people are actually saying they “cannot” read and are demanding sign language interpreters for online videos vs captioning?
Here’s Marlee Maitlin’s presentation on behalf of NAD (National Association for the Deaf) and on behalf of 36 million deaf, Deaf, and hard of hearing Americans:
Marlee Maitlin signs, but CANREADANDWRITE in English. So do millions of D/Deaf and HOH Americans. Not only we can read captions, but also we can write emails, chat online, send text messages, read websites.
I don’t care if a person with hearing loss can speak or sign – as long as s/he can have a good command of written language. Only with those skills you will be able to succeed in the mainstream society.
I totally agree with Dan Guy saying: “Written language should be everyone’s second language. It should be the lingual equalizer.”
I also agree with Martin Smales that many deaf people in Australia are bi-lingual (Auslan and English) – so there are many of them here in the USA. Many college educated Deaf signers I have been personally meeting (including those from Deaf families) are well familiar with slangs and idioms of English.
I understand that certain websites that cater to Deaf users – such as Deaf organizations, sites selling products and services for Deaf people, Deaf forums, etc. – would need vlogs or signed videos which would make a perfect sense. However, including sign language interpreters for such mainstream sites as CNN, BBC, etc is insane.
By the way, I personally can speak, read, write, sign in several languages and I am PROFOUNDLY deaf.
Your ending doesn’t make sense either about online accessibility: “I’ll be surprised if that doesn’t make you want to learn a few signs yourself.”
It would have been more useful if you spent most of your article educating web specialists and website owners about how to find and use resources for captioning and transcriptions. Many of us are frustrated enough trying to explain to hearing website owners why we need them. On top of this you are making it more confusing for hearing people with advertising this sign language and Deaf culture thing and more frustrating to the majority of us who need captions – which in turn would increase SEO for those website owners.
Maybe you should end instead that you will be surprised if with all benefits for SEO it doesn’t make hearing people want to make more videos captioned??
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celticchrys
I don’t think the analogy of reading text as a second language holds up. Someone who first learns sign, and then learns to read text is only slightly different from someone who first learns to speak and then learns to read text. No one is born reading text.
For one, the signing is the foundational communication, and for the other, the speech is. Still, excellent article; good food for thought.
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charlesdelarow
With more people aging, deafness is getting more frequent. The senses, especially the eyes are ears and prime sensors for us and I know through a relative, how hard it is when these disappear. Simple things become almost impossible.
49 Reader Comments
Back to the ArticleJames Mason
My partner works with people with disabilities and, as a web designer, we’re always talking about how to come about new ideas using software that we can create interesting programs for childeren with learning disabilities. One of the main problems from a developer’s point of view, is building applications that take into consideration all the different types of users and all their varying abilities and disabilities, eg. childeren with Cerebal Palsy have a diverse spectrum of physical abilily and some of them have intellectual disabilities. The problem becomes how do you create an application that is accessible for all users?
nori kuro
The author, Lisa Herrod, makes the case that web designers should consider the Deaf community as a distinct culture versus a “˜disabled’ population. The article is focused on the author’s experience with the deaf community and her understanding that the Deaf community is a “linguistic and cultural minority group, similar to an ethic community.”? She uses the big D, as you would the big I for the Italian community, the big C for the Chinese community and so on.
This is an important understanding as the present understanding from the web community is that deafness is the opposite of blindness. If we make audio captioning available, as we do alt text on an image for the blind, we have solved the usability issues for the deaf.
This oversimplification is the wrong approach for designing web content for the Deaf community. Herrod does point out that in the last 18 months, the web community has become more aware of deafness and how it influences the design of web pages. But this focus is still on captioning, “transcription of speech and important sound effects”? and subtitling which is “written translation of dialogue”?.
Herrod goes further to make several points that all web designers should consider.
The first point is that in the Deaf community they “speak”? sign language. Sign languages are “˜visual-spatial’ and many elements of these languages do not have a natural written form. Deaf people rely heavily on facial expression to convey essential meaning and emphasis, and there is no direct written translation for these meanings and emphasis.
Another important point is that direct translation will not always work, phonetic based language i.e. English, can be mid-leading. Herrod uses the example of the phrase, “once in a blue moon”?. This phrase means occasionally or once in a while, but when translated into a signed language, the meaning of blue moon can be ambiguous or misleading.
English as a language uses many synonyms while there are very few used in signed languages. Sign languages rely more on facial expression or body language than it does on other words with similar meaning.
These are all important points that present a challenge for anyone designing for the web.
Herrod does make a case for several solutions to this problem. There is no single solution, but there are several things that can make a website more user friendly for the Deaf community:
“¢ Reference Writing for the Web 101
“¢ Use more multimedia
These suggestions are very important and would make any website that is being targeted to the deaf community more usable for them. The use of multimedia is really key, as a deaf person, I always rely on any medium with video or visual access. It is hard to understand from written language what is the meaning. Also, as a Japanese native speaker, the point of a discussion always come first, this makes communication much easier. Once you establish what you are talking about, it is easier to comprehend.
This is a very good article because Lisa Herrod has really attempted to explain what the Deaf community is about. The concept that it is a community, with their own language should be the starting point web design.
Lisa Herrod
Hi James,
Thanks for your comment on the article.
Yours is an interesting question:
bq. How do you create an application that is accessible for all users? bq.
The problem is that it isn’t really possible. I think the best we can do is focus on making a site that is accessible to as many people as possible.
Accessibility specialists such as Brian Kelly and Liddy Neville have been writing about building for ‘Adaptability’, which focuses on creating accessible sites taking an holistic, inclusive approach that considers the primary user groups, purpose and context.
It’s really interesting reading.
Lisa Herrod
Hi Nori
Thanks for such a great summary of the article, I’m glad you liked it and that as a Deaf person, you agree with my approach.
Asian sign languages are fascinating, particularly for the palm writing of certain words. Does Japanese SL use palm writing for certain characters?
All the best,
Lisa
aratakojima
I would like to tell you that I had translated this article into Japanese.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/aratako0/20090107/p1
But I have to apologize to you that I forgot to tell you that I had done and published it a year ago!
I’m sorry and thank you for your great article.
Luk10
Thank you, Lisa, for the article. However, for most part you are biased towards sign language which is accessible only locally to a tiny group of Deaf people – like Kerri Hicks explained in her #39 post:
“If Deafness is not a disability, but a culture, why should this particular community bubble to the top for attention ahead of others — many of which are more populous?”
Should we try to squeeze 5 different sign language interpreters (ASL, BSL, etc.) into one screen to “translate” one spoken English and on top of this being covered with captions – one row in “normal” written language and another row in “plain” language with a glossary for “specialized” vocabulary? ;0) That would be very interesting and indeed very confusing to watch.
I totally agree with Joe Clark that captioning is the main thing that we have been fighting for years and is accessible to much more people than just those who have hearing loss. It is the number one priority we should focus on right now.
Do you have any user research or any hard data to prove how many Deaf people are actually saying they “cannot” read and are demanding sign language interpreters for online videos vs captioning?
Here’s Marlee Maitlin’s presentation on behalf of NAD (National Association for the Deaf) and on behalf of 36 million deaf, Deaf, and hard of hearing Americans:
http://www.nad.org/issues/civil-rights/communications-act/21st-century-act/marlee-matlin-fcc-field-hearing-testimony
Marlee Maitlin signs, but CAN READ AND WRITE in English. So do millions of D/Deaf and HOH Americans. Not only we can read captions, but also we can write emails, chat online, send text messages, read websites.
I don’t care if a person with hearing loss can speak or sign – as long as s/he can have a good command of written language. Only with those skills you will be able to succeed in the mainstream society.
I totally agree with Dan Guy saying: “Written language should be everyone’s second language. It should be the lingual equalizer.”
I also agree with Martin Smales that many deaf people in Australia are bi-lingual (Auslan and English) – so there are many of them here in the USA. Many college educated Deaf signers I have been personally meeting (including those from Deaf families) are well familiar with slangs and idioms of English.
I understand that certain websites that cater to Deaf users – such as Deaf organizations, sites selling products and services for Deaf people, Deaf forums, etc. – would need vlogs or signed videos which would make a perfect sense. However, including sign language interpreters for such mainstream sites as CNN, BBC, etc is insane.
By the way, I personally can speak, read, write, sign in several languages and I am PROFOUNDLY deaf.
Your ending doesn’t make sense either about online accessibility: “I’ll be surprised if that doesn’t make you want to learn a few signs yourself.”
It would have been more useful if you spent most of your article educating web specialists and website owners about how to find and use resources for captioning and transcriptions. Many of us are frustrated enough trying to explain to hearing website owners why we need them. On top of this you are making it more confusing for hearing people with advertising this sign language and Deaf culture thing and more frustrating to the majority of us who need captions – which in turn would increase SEO for those website owners.
Maybe you should end instead that you will be surprised if with all benefits for SEO it doesn’t make hearing people want to make more videos captioned??
Luk10
P.S. I would like to also add that there are many D/deaf and HOH people who can speak, read, write, and sign more than one language. So no excuses.
celticchrys
I don’t think the analogy of reading text as a second language holds up. Someone who first learns sign, and then learns to read text is only slightly different from someone who first learns to speak and then learns to read text. No one is born reading text.
For one, the signing is the foundational communication, and for the other, the speech is. Still, excellent article; good food for thought.
charlesdelarow
With more people aging, deafness is getting more frequent. The senses, especially the eyes are ears and prime sensors for us and I know through a relative, how hard it is when these disappear. Simple things become almost impossible.