TecAccess - Accessible and Section 508

Deafness

People who are deaf require visual representations of auditory information. Solutions for providing accessibility may include closed captioning, blinking error messages, and transcripts of the spoken audio. It is critical to provide the audio output in a redundant equivalent in a visual form.

Deafness involves a substantial uncorrectable impairment of hearing in both ears. Some deaf individuals' first language is sign language and/or they may read lips. Additionally, they may not read or speak a language fluently. Many individuals who are deaf rely on captions for audio content and they may also need to toggle the captions on an audio file on or off as they browse a web page.

Here are some accessibility barrier examples for individuals with deafness:

• Lack of captions or transcripts of audio on the Web.
• Lack of content-related images in pages full of text.
• Requirements for voice input on Web site.

Hard of Hearing

Individuals that are hard of hearing may require visual representations of auditory information. Accessible Solutions include closed captioning, blinking error messages, and transcripts of the spoken audio. It is critical to ensure that audio output information is provided in a redundant equivalent visual form.

Individuals that are hard of hearing generally have a mild to moderate hearing impairment. They may rely on captions for audio content and/or amplification of audio. Additionally, the individuals may need to toggle the captions on an audio file on or off, or adjust the volume of an audio file.

Here are some examples of accessibility barriers for people that are hard of hearing:

• Lack of captions or transcripts.

Written by Debra Ruh of TecAccess

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