The Deaf and Hard of Hearing community has had discrimination protections in place since the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, before the invention or rise of the internet.   Since then, there have been many technological advances promoting inclusion for members of the Deaf community.  However, no amendments have been made to the ADA to include protection from online discrimination or to include mandatory accommodations on internet sites which leaves the Deaf community in a gray area.  Technology has promoted inclusion of Deaf individuals, yet there are still ways to make technology more effective so that it is totally inclusive of all individuals.

The Benefits of Technology in Education

While there are Deaf day or residential schools where Deaf students receive a rich and inclusive education, not all Deaf students are available to attend these schools.  This leaves a huge need for assistive technology for students attending mainstream schools to be able to have equal access to the curriculum.  Technology advances have helped level the playing field for a multitude of Deaf or Hard of Hearing students.  One advance includes Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Devices, which is a picture or text to speech option for students to effectively communicate using an iPad device. These are readily available in schools and would be an appropriate accommodation for younger students who are working on their communication skills.  As students matriculate through the grades, the technology that can support them changes, and we begin to see Deaf or Hard of Hearing students utilizing loop or FM systems, which are assistive technologies that allow a student to hear what the teacher is saying through a hearing aid or other assistive listening device; while these systems can be pricey and place an undue burden on the school district if requested, a third, less costly option would be a real time speech to text program that allows for transcription of what the teacher is saying.  This would be a reasonable accommodation and many school laptops or iPads can be loaded with these programs.  The last type of technology that can help a Deaf or Hard of Hearing student experience an inclusive educational environment is the use of alerting systems, like lighting alerts to go with fire alarms or other schoolwide drills.  And as a reminder, these technologies should be provided free of charge by the school district as a reasonable accommodation for a Deaf student so that they can appropriately access the general curriculum and experience inclusivity.

The Benefits of Technology in Employment

The impact COVID-19 had on the employment sector opened up new ways of interoffice communicating, especially with a majority of companies integrating video conferencing into their workdays, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.  Even now that most COVID-19 safety precautions have been lifted, some businesses have decided to keep the videoconferencing as it is more time efficient, while being more cost effective and more convenient to employees.  This is great for Deaf individuals because many of these programs offer real time captions which allow Deaf workers to participate fully in work conversations or team decisions without drawing attention to their Deafness.  And these videoconferencing applications can be used even if Deaf workers have returned to work in person.  It just allows them to take in all the information in a written form, which before this technology, would require a sign language interpreter or speech to text applications which could lead to communication fatigue because of the additional steps required to translate from one language, American sign language (ASL) to English.

The Benefits of Technology in Deaf Communities in Daily Life

One of the biggest benefits of technology for Deaf communities has been the rise in video calling programs such as Apple FaceTime or Google Meet.  These programs, depending on what platform you are using, whether it be computer or smartphone, allow Deaf users to interact with each other and hearing individuals, when before they had to use teletypewriters (TTY), which were effective but very impersonal.  Being able to see the person you are communicating with and use your preferred method of communication, whether that be ASL, lip reading, or a combination of speech to text has revolutionized the way Deaf individuals communicate with each other and hearing individuals. 

Another benefit of technology is the rise of social media, which allows members of the Deaf community a place to connect with each other and members of the hearing community, which helps reduce stigma regarding Deafness.  Unfortunately, many hearing people have misconceptions regarding communicating with Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals, so having social media pages that educate people on Deaf culture can increase positive communication between Deaf and hearing individuals. 

Making Technology more inclusive

Technology advances in the 30+ years since the ADA was originally drafted and signed into legislation has completely revolutionized the Deaf community and increased access to inclusive environments in education, employment and day to day living.  However, there are still areas of improvement to truly make these technologies more accessible to Deaf users.  First, there are no regulations regarding internet content, specifically video content available on social media or YouTube, the largest video content website out there.  While YouTube does provide closed captioning on some videos, it does not meet telecommunication standards of title IV of the ADA, which states closed captioning should be 99% accurate.  Other complaints from the Deaf community regarding technology include that gaming or social media apps do not include any sort of written communication to access games which significantly limits Deaf individual’s abilities to interact with these programs.

Conclusion

While many gains in technology have provided more inclusivity in the daily lives of Deaf individuals, there are still gaps that need to be addressed.  If you are ever in need of bridging the communication gap and creating an inclusive and accessible environment for all, reach out to Unspoken Language Services, a professional sign language interpreter service.