Intelligence Community Design System

People will have different degrees of a hearing impairment. Profoundly or severely deaf people may rely on hearing aids and lip-reading/speaking, whilst others will struggle with noisy environments.

A hearing impairment can include things like finding issues with background noise through to side effects of medicines.

11 million people in the UK are d/Deaf or hard of hearing. You can read the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) auditory facts and figures for more information.

The following table lists examples of hearing impairments in three columns (permanent, temporary and situational).

In addressing some of the design tips below, we make it easier for everyone to use our apps.

Make sure any audio information is available in text.

For all audio content (including videos with audio) you must provide subtitles and a transcript . Subtitles must not be embedded (rendered) into the video as they need to be readable using assistive technologies.

Don't rely on automated subtitling and transcription because it might be inaccurate. Always check any automated subtitles and transcripts for accuracy.

Including closed captions and transcripts on video or audio files will make the page accessible to those with hearing impairments.

When planning meetings, people may request multiple points of contact. For people with hearing impairments, communication via phone may not be suitable. In these scenarios, providing multiple forms of contact will increase accessibility.

This can include interpreters for in person meetings, speech to text for virtual meetings and communication via messaging services.

Split larger chunks into smaller sections separated by headings. Smaller chunks are easier to read and less intensive compared to larger blocks of text.