Recently, I was doing research on a website that provided instructional videos to explain how their service worked. The videos were narrated while instructional diagrams scrolled across the screen along with the voice over. After watching a few of the videos I realized that there are many people who are hard of hearing who would struggle understanding the voice over. What compounded this was that the website completely failed to provide text versions of their service information. It is unfortunate that this company completely missed the boat on making their website accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. It is my hope that one day there will be requirements that will enforce captioning for videos online. Having mandatory captioning not only allows hard of hearing and deaf individuals a fair online experience but it also potentially provides more clients for an online business.
I am very lucky that my hearing loss is not so severe that I miss out on these things. It does however, remind me of all of the individuals I have met with hearing loss who struggle every day to interact with a world that is not designed to help them. Every day we are making progress by continuing to build awareness and advocating for the needs of those who are hard of hearing or deaf.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
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