Dhruv, older adult student who is deaf in Stories of Web Users, How People with Disabilities Use the Web

Accessibility: It's about people

Note: This user story is an example of a person with this type of disability. Other people with this disability may have different experiences.

About Dhruv

Most people don’t realise that sign language is a completely different language. I can read text captions but it takes me longer as they are not in my first language. Captions and signing aren’t interchangeable.

Dhruv has been deaf since birth. He is a mature student, taking online courses. While he can hear some sounds, he does not hear enough to understand speech. Dhruv learned to sign as a young child. Sign language is his first language. As a result, written language can be difficult. He prefers written content to have good structure and headings with minimal jargon so that it’s easier to understand.

Dhruv can lip read but can only do so effectively when he can see the full face of the person who is speaking. Even then, he can only do it well enough to pick up a few words here and there and can’t rely on lip reading alone to understand content.

The university where Dhruv studies provides sign language interpreters and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART); however, this captioning is not always present on video and other media content. The university is now working to caption all content across their curriculum, however it is a lengthy process. As more and more content is captioned, Dhruv is finding it easier to complete his studies remotely.

Dhruv spends a lot of his free time watching streamed content on video streaming services. The improvement in captioning of these services in recent years has meant he is able to watch more programmes than he was before. He can have difficulty when captions aren’t clearly color coded to show who is speaking. Auto-captioning can be useful for him but it can also cause him problems if it’s available but incorrect.

Barrier examples

Inaccurate captions
Barrier: “I love that my classes are recorded and available online but sometimes the captions don’t convey the exact words that the instructor is saying, especially in some of my more technical classes.”
Works well: “When the captioner gets to know the material so they don’t miss words or make mistakes.”
Design of captions
Barrier: “When watching movies online, the captions often cover parts of the video. Sometimes I miss things in the video and it makes the captions hard to read depending on the background.”
Works well: “Captions appear at the bottom of the screen but I can also move them if necessary. They are shown against a solid color background that offers good contrast between the captions and background.”
Good camera position for speaker
Barrier: “Some classes record the instructor speaking. This is great because I am good at lip reading but the camera is often too far away.”
Works well: “The camera is positioned to focus in on the instructor’s face.”
No alternative for audio
Barrier: “When watching a news program online, there isn’t an option for me to understand what the speaker is saying.”
Works well: “Provide audio alternatives such as sign language, captions or transcript. If there is a speaker in camera, focus in on the speaker.”

Assistive technologies and adaptive strategies used

Video: Dhruv, older adult student who is deaf

This video is also available on a W3C server: Video: Dhruv, older adult student who is deaf (file format: MP4, file size: 307MB).

Text Transcript with Description of Visuals

Audio Visual
How people with disabilities use digital technology; Dhruv, older adult student who is deaf. How people with disabilities use digital technology; Dhruv, older adult student who is deaf.
Hello! My name’s D-H-R-U-V, Dhruv. I’m Deaf. I can hear some sounds but not enough to understand speech. I use British Sign Language – I think and dream in signs. A man speaks and signs directly to the camera.
I recently enrolled in an online degree. For my classes, I schedule interpreters who can interpret the lectures and conversations and voice for me. I need video conferencing apps with functionality to “pin” videos of the interpreters so that I can always see them. The man is sitting at a desk using a laptop. He is participating in an online meeting using a video conferencing app. He alternates between multiple participant and pinned participant view.
Some lectures have real-time captioning typed by human captioners. This is more accurate than automatic captions, which often don’t recognize specialized terms in the lectures. For our assigned videos, I rely on good captions. These are edited so that each sentence appearing on the screen is not too long and is synchronized with the audio. I also often find myself needing to adjust the text size and colors of the captions, to be able to read them better. Some apps also allow me to move the captions to the top or bottom of the video, so that they are not in the way. The man is watching a video in a media player and selecting English captions from a list of language options. He then selects options for how he wants the captions to be displayed.
In some situations, I find myself lip reading. For example, when I’m on unplanned calls without interpreters or other people who can sign. I learned lip reading over the years because of such situations but it’s not always reliable for me. I need to see the person’s mouth, have them speak clearly, and seeing their gestures also helps. Yet it’s exhausting and not really something I can keep doing for too long. The man is sitting at a desk using a laptop. He is participating in an online meeting using a video conferencing app.
I also use the chat function. Some chat tools support real-time text rather than line-by-line text messages only. This is much more interactive. I can engage with my friends in text conversations as others do by voice. The man is sitting at a desk using a laptop to talk to other people using a chat function.
Of course, the classes also come with a lot of reading. I’m fine with that, except when the writing is unnecessarily complex and without structures like lists and headings. People don’t realize that for me reading text involves extra effort, because sign language is my native language. So, like for everyone else, clear and simple writing makes text easier to understand. The man is sitting at a desk using a laptop and reading through a long, complex text.
You can help make technology accessible to me. Accessibility: It’s about people. The man speaks directly to the camera.
For more information from the Web Accessibility Initiative on how people with disabilities use digital technology, visit w3.org/WAI/people Accessibility: It’s about people; w3.org/WAI/people
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