Access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Distance Learning

by Sheryl Ballenger, Ph.D.

Sheryl Ballenger, Ph.D.  is nationally recognized in the field of access for deaf individuals, transition, ICT accessibility, and disabilities. Currently, Dr. Ballenger manages the Captioning and Described Media Services unit at the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, a unit of the College of Design at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Building in accessibility for courses is becoming more prevalent. The COVID-19 pandemic and shift to online learning highlighted the urgent need for accessibility. For deaf and hard of hearing students some accommodations were provided using auto-generated captions, or automatic speech recognition tools (ASR). Is ASR an equitable accommodation for Deaf and hard of hearing students? Research data will be shared concerning the accuracy of ASR and possible settings for ASR as an accommodation.