Dhruv, older adult student who is deaf in Stories of Web Users, How People with Disabilities Use the Web
Note: This user story is an example of a person with this type of disability. Other people with this disability may have different experiences.
This is an unpublished draft preview that might include content that is not yet approved. The published website is at w3.org/WAI/.
Note: This user story is an example of a person with this type of disability. Other people with this disability may have different experiences.
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.
This is an unpublished draft preview that might include content that is not yet approved. The published website is at w3.org/WAI/.