Access Denied: what are the restrictions for hearing-impaired and deaf people on hospital websites?
Last year, in collaboration with Proud Nerds, we launched an important initiative: Access Denied. The aim of this project is to examine the digital accessibility of all hospital websites in the Netherlands, with the mission of providing equal online access to care for all.
Since the launch of this project, we have received many questions. That is why we share these videos in which we elaborate on the most frequently asked questions about digital accessibility. This time: what kind of barriers does someone who is hard of hearing or deaf experience on hospital websites in the Netherlands?
What is an auditory impairment?
About 1.5 million people in the Netherlands are deaf or hard of hearing. Some people can still hear some of the sound and others can be completely deaf. The causes? It can be congenital, but it can also occur later in life. Or due to hearing damage, for example. The degree of hearing loss is measured in decibels (dB). For people with less hearing loss, a hearing aid, for example, can help. This way, they can still understand others. For people who have severe hearing loss or experience deafness, a chochlear implanaant (CI) could help. You can read more about auditory impairments in this blog.
The restrictions on hospital websites in the Netherlands when you have an auditory disability
Videos are incredibly commonly used to convey information easily(er). But what if you are hard of hearing or deaf? Will it still be as easy to understand as everyone else? If this is properly taken into account then: yes! However, we still see many accessibility problems in videos that make it difficult for people with hearing impairments to understand all the information properly.
No or poor subtitles
In the accessibility studies for the hospital websites, we used the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). In this, we therefore also examine videos and whether they have good subtitles. These are the most common subtitling problems we have encountered:
Automatically generated subtitles
No subtitles for important sounds
No indication of who you are hearing
No indication of who you are hearing
Videos are a great way to convey information quickly. However, the above points can make these videos difficult to understand for hearing-impaired or deaf people. Automatically generated subtitles can cause confusion. In fact, words may be wrongly subtitled out of the blue, such as: "overgeit" instead of "government". But how do you make sure the above points are accessible to people with hearing disabilities? You can find out in this blog.
Only reachable by phone
On several hospital websites, it was only possible to contact them by phone. Someone who is deaf or hard of hearing may feel hampered by this. Someone who is deaf will not be able to pick this up independently. Therefore, always make sure you offer several options for contacting them. For instance, also via e-mail, a live chat or a contact form.
Who are we digitally accessible to?
Simone was born and raised in Tilburg. Her passion is sharing her story and photos, in the process she loves working with her hands. "I have Usher's Syndrome, which means I am deaf and visually impaired with cochlear vision and night blindness. In addition, I also suffer from balance disorder."
Currently, Simone has a cochlear implant, which allows her to pick up sounds and tones. "I do still rely on lip reading and sign language for support," she says.
Want to know more about this project?
Curious about all the research findings? You can request the report on the Access Denied website. In doing so, Tim, Marijn and Jantina also share their stories. Together, we make sure we make the internet accessible to everyone. Want to get started developing digitally accessible videos for Simone yourself? Check out our training for accessible videos.
