a11yTOConf2020

How To Design A Digital Product That Appeals To People With A Hearing Loss Like A Magnet

Speaker: Eyra Abraham
Twitter: Eyara_Abraham

• Create different user personas, it shouldn’t replace testing with real users
• Factors in User Persona:
  • When did they acquired the hearing loss
  • Hearing Loss in dB
  • Communication preferences
• Hearing loss when adult
  • There are 4 million Canadians with some form of hearing loss
  • You might notice that these users don’t engage in the same way: up the volume, or people around them need to do extra work to interact with them.
• Hearing loss when teenager:
  • Will most likely have a listening tool
  • Assumptions: those using a listening tool is a one fix all, but it’s not true, they Need other tools: like close captioning, non verbal cues.
  • Listening Fatigue: trying to concentrate too long might force users to tune out after an amount of time
• Hearing loss at birth:
  • Using ASL
  • Remember ASL requires 2 hands to engage and communicate
  • Provide Visual context in front of them