The D/deaf/Hard of Hearing people (I include any type of deafness as there are 4 level of deafness from light to profound) is a public often forgotten. Deafness being invisible, it is easy to forget the basic parameters to take into account to facilitate communication.
Before going a little more in depth into the subject, let us recall the basic definition of the term DEAF (according to the CNRTL, a French source): “a person whose perception of the sound is disturbed, who is deprived of the sense of hearing or who is suffering from a lowering (one-sided or two-sided) hearing that prevents hearing certain sounds.” However, the person may hear a sound, noise but she/he may have difficulty with distinguishing them, to locate them, the message may be deformed. For someone with a moderate hearing loss, sometimes it is like hearing someone speaking in a foreign language.
Also, the terms “D/deaf/Hard-of-Hearing” vary from person to person depending on their experience, culture, and so on!
Communicating Clearly
Depending on the degree of deafness, some parameters and mode of communication are privileged. The following non-exhaustive list is based on my own experience as a deaf person (moderate hearing loss) and to avoid offending anyone, I will say “I” or “Me” :
- Speak in front of me and do not hide your mouth (with your hand or other objects), as this prevents lip reading, I may need to rely on your lips to support my understanding.
- Avoid talking from another room because it’s very annoying, I sometimes don’t “understand” what you are saying, I make you repeat but without success so I have to come to you (while I was busy doing something) and ask you to repeat for the umpteenth time. Simply come to me.
- You do not need to call my name 5 times, get close to me or wave your hand or gently tap my shoulder to get my attention.
- Articulate in a reasonable way.
- Slightly increase the volume of your voice but needless to yell.
- Also avoid whispering, it is very unpleasant… or if necessary, whisper very close to my ear.
- Be patient and remember that it is not my fault, I don’t do this to bother you and seeing you being annoyed due to repetition will only tense the conversation and build a gap between you and me.
If you come across a Deaf person who signs, use gestures or mimes will show an effort on your willingness to maintain the conversation. A pen and paper are an excellent support for maintaining a conversation if sign language is her/his mode of communication but you do not know it. In writing, be clear and concise, use sketch if necessary.
Fun fact, in France, I read and witnessed this many times, when a Deaf person orders food at the restaurant and explains she/he is Deaf, suddenly, the vendor starts speaking English (“THAT, YES”) before realizing that it is useless!
Wondering where is the link between deafness and sewing?
I’m sure there are many D/deaf/Hard of Hearing people who want to learn new skills (like sewing for example) through YouTube, or share their sewing on Instagram and Facebook. If any of you have some ASL and SEWING skills, starting a YouTube channel with tutorial in sign language would be a great idea!
However, the vast majority of videos are not closed captioned which means that D/deaf/Hard of Hearing people are excluded by default while hearing people can take full advantage of what Instagram offers (and used wisely, Instagram can change the user’s life). Personally, I need to set the sound loud or put the phone close to my ear to hear comfortably a video (but then I can’t watch it…) and it requires a high level of focus to hear well. Or I use headphones, but when I do not have them on hand, I simply skip the video.
How you can help: Closed Caption your Instagram stories!
If during your Insta story you could add closed captions, this would be a very big step towards inclusion of D/deaf/Hard of Hearing people in social media. I grant you, it requires some adjustments but if you were in our shoes, would not you appreciate the comfort of closed captions ?
I have found a free app for android users and I tested it. It is possible to choose a language of speech recognition among 7 languages (French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Hebrew and Turkish):
To do so, please follow the following steps :
- Open PLAY STORE
- Download « autocap » in PLAY STORE
- Once installed, open app and choose between “select the video” you have already recorded or “camera” if you want to record a live video
- After selecting the already recorded video, choose the voice recognition language and press NEXT and wait
- Closed caption are added to the video ! But, it may not be very accurate sometimes so you will need to edit the caption. To do so, tap the line where you want to edit and tap the PEN pictogram.
- Edit the words and tape DONE (on the bottom right of keyboard). You can also replay by taping the blue arrow to make sure you are editing the correct word.
- To link the line with the line above, tap on the first green/white arrow. To add a line, tap on the last green/white arrow. To remove the line, simply tap the PEN pictogram, erase the sentence, tap DONE and confirm delete sentence. To change the font and font color, tap the blue parameter pictogram. If you want to highlight a word, tap the word and tap the purple pictogram. To remove the highlighting, tap the grey pictogram.
- To adjust the timing, tap on the CLOCK pictogram. If you want to shift of a few seconds the sentence, simply tap and hold the blue rectangle and move from right to left. If you want to shorten or lengthen the time of the sentence, tap and hold the lower edge of the rectangle. To adjust the size of the font, tap and hold the white rectangle of the bottom of the video. Tap DONE when the above adjustment are completed.
- Edit the words and tape DONE (on the bottom right of keyboard). You can also replay by taping the blue arrow to make sure you are editing the correct word.
Once the video + caption have been adjusted, you can tap SAVE.
The logo of the app will appear in the video, which is too bad. But it will also allow other users to discover the app. If you want to remove the logo, you will need to subscribe for € 3.99 / month. Now go to instagram and upload your video!
A tip before you start recording a video of you facing the camera: leave a margin between the bottom of the screen and your chin because otherwise you may have closed caption on the bottom of your face.
I don’t have an iPhone so I’ll simply link the tutorial found on Google : https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/07/apple-clips-app-ultimate-guide-video-walkthrough/ (Editor’s note: Several of us on the Sewcialists team use Clipomatic and it works well! It’s about $5CAD, and easy to use. I like that it lets you edit your autocaptions before you save, so I can fix “socialists” to “Sewcialists”!)
I would like to give a special thank you to Sasha (@kingdomdaughtermakes) on instagram who reached out to me asking if closed caption would be helpful and had this wonderful idea to make a special post on Instagram and since then, more and more people are captioning their videos like Sewcialists, Closet Case Patterns (their instagram account is here), Sasha, Rumana from (@thelittlepomegranate), to name a few….
I would love to read your experience of your hearing loss journey and how you managed to accept your deafness :-). And if you have any question, I would be more than happy to read you so don’t hesitate to leave your question in the comment section 🙂
Also a special thanks to the Sewcialists along with authors of blog posts who highlight diversity and uniqueness. I’m so proud to be part of this sewing community !
I’m Anissa, a 29 year old from France who started sewing at the age of 6. It is also the age of when I had my first hearing devices that I didn’t want to wear until the age of 22 ! When I was young, I wish I could have met people wearing hearing devices, it would have encouraged me to wear them. Now I fully accepted my deafness and encourage people to do so 🙂
I’ve just launched my business where I design and make leather bags. Part of the sales goes to Deaf Child Worldwide, a non-profit organization that supports Deaf children in developing country. You can find me sewing on instagram @askina_collection or here. Click here to visit my website.
Very interesting, Thanks for the post!
P.S. I looked up “D/deaf/hard-of-hearing, and it was very informative.
Thank you, I’m very happy this post was informative 🙂
Thank you for your explanation of the CC app. My sister-in-law became deaf at a later age and now has cochlear implants to hear. So many times things are confusing for her, especially in crowded spaces, because her hearing is still different than what a person with average hearing perceives. It is an invisible difference and she has been confronted several times for not responding or heeding directions from store security, police, etc. It can be difficult being different.
I agree with you, being different can be difficult and isolating. Fortunately, some people are willing to be patient 🙂 It is important to explain why we may have not responded, and if that person doesn’t care, that means they are narrow-minded and not worthy of our energies 🙂
Yay, thank you for this post! My boyfriend is hard of hearing (mild hearing loss, I think). We’ve gotten pretty good at communicating at home but public places are often a struggle and source of stress. The annoying thing for me is when he yells something at me from the other room and I can understand him but I know he won’t understand my reply 😂.
This app is such a good resource I didn’t know about! I hope captioning becomes a default for videos in the future 💛.
Yay! Thank you so much for this post. My boyfriend is hard of hearing (mild on the scale I think) and while we have figured out communication at home pretty well, public places are always difficult and a source of stress. At home sometimes it’s annoying because he’ll yell at me from the other room and I can understand him but I know he won’t understand my reply. Like, why are you making ME come into the other room 😂.
I think one of the things that is most difficult for him is figuring out when to tell people about his hearing aids. When he tells them when meeting and then the conversation goes fluently the people tend to forget about it? But when you only tell people when it becomes an issue that’s even more difficult because my boyfriend is already uncomfortable at that point.
I didn’t know about this app and that’s such a good resource! I hope captioning becomes the default for videos in the future. 💛
Hi, sorry for the late reply, I live in France and the time zone is different.
Regarding when to tell people, for my experience, if the person talks clearly and I don’t have issue, I don’t not necessarily mention it.
But when it becomes an issue (like when I make the person repeats two times in a row or if she speaks far away from me), I mention I have a hearing aids and explains her some parameters to take into account in order to get a good communication (not to speak from another room, facing me when talking, …).
But first thing first, he has to be comfortable about his hearing loss. It all starts from within.
Once comfortable, he can overcome easily some situations that were difficult for him before.
And most importantly, if he is comfortable with that, people will feel comfortable with that too.
It took me a while to finally be comfortable and wish he will be soon because “when you assume your difference, your confidence is inspiring”. Who knows, his story will helps somebody else? Just like it did for me 🙂
Also, I thank you for your patience 🙂 My partner is very patience and it is highly appreciated and helpful in order to accept it.
Thank you for your comment 🙂 Have a lovely week-end !
Thanks so much for this! I have moderate to severe hearing loss and so many things that you mentioned really struck a cord with me. YES PLEASE to captioned vlogs: I just don’t listen to any as if completely excludes me. Ditto with video-d sew-a-longs. A hidden disability but one it’s so important to talk about 👂🏻
Hi Heather !
Thank you for taking the time to comment 🙂
I’m happy the post resonate with your hearing loss 🙂
It is clearly a hidden disability that people tend to forget once mentioned but it is important for us to be comfortable with it to remind them when necessary.
Captioned vlogs would be a good benefit for the bloggers : she/he will be inclusive and gain a larger audience.
I believe things will positively change 🙂
Do you mention your hearing loss when you meet people? Are you comfortable with it?
Have a lovely week-end 🙂
Anissa
Thanks for this post! I don’t personally care for video tutorials (just my learning style) but I know I skip a LOT of video content on Instagram because I’m rarely in a situation where I can listen to audio—so i really do love it when videos are captioned. So thank you for the rundown on the apps! I’ve been considering looking for one myself (not that I do a lot of video content) but haven’t really had the time to put into the search.
Hi Tanit,
I’m happy this tuto will help you make captions, especially since android has a few caption app available compare to apple.
Captions are useful for anyone who doesn’t want to/can’t turn on the sound (in the bus, in a room with a sleeping baby, …).
Thank you for your comment, I really appreciate your effort 🙂
Have a wonderful and sunny week-end (in France it’s cold and cloudy 🙁 )
Thank you so much for this well-written, informative and helpful post. My husband has hearing loss, and I am guilty of sometimes being forgetful/insensitive to his needs. He is super sensitive about his hearing loss, so the combination has occasionally led to fights. I am going to make a bigger effort to appreciate his point of view and to be more considerate of his needs. I never really considered the needs of a deaf person when it comes to internet videos. I don’t watch a lot of videos, but when I do, I often watch them with the sound turned off. I HATE background music, and so many videos are silent with annoying background music added in. If I ever make a video, (pretty unlikely), I will make sure to caption it.
Hi Lynda, I’m so happy you have liked this post and found it “well-written, informative and helpful”.
I’m surprised to read review from people who have a relative with a hearing loss, I usually come across people who have a hearing loss.
So it is very interesting for me to read your experience, so thank you for taking the time to write a comment 🙂
I am also very happy that you will make bigger effort for your husband, it is already a huge step from you to acknowledge your “omission” of his needs so he will gladly appreciate your next effort, 100% sure 🙂
Also, thank you for thinking about making caption if ever you make a video 😉 captions are useful even for hearing people who doesn’t want to turn on the sound.
I wish you a great week-end and don’t hesitate to share how your husband reacted toward your effort 🙂
Also, the first two times I looked at the picture in the beginning, I did not see the hearing device listed in the caption, but I did notice the awesome earrings!
lol thank you !
I wanted to incorporate something related to sewing while showing my hearing devices so I have managed to come up with this earring/bobine case 🙂
Thank you for this post, I had never thought about a connection between hearing loss and you tube videos. I am around elderly people a lot and most of them have hearing aids, and find it hard to communicate when they are in a room with a lot of people. I’ll be more conscious of how I speak with them from now on. A few years ago I had surgery for tongue cancer and lost part of my tongue. My speech is not always clear, so I have experienced the frustration when the other party doesn’t understand what you are saying. I guess we all have to learn to be patient with each other.
Hi Anne, thank you for sharing your opinion, I highly appreciate your time for writing this comment 🙂
I totally forgot to mention that in a noisy environment, it is very hard to hear well and communicate. All the noise are at the same level and it is a real headache to distinguish the voice. I turn off my hearing aids and hardly rely on lip reading.
Have you ever thought about learning sign language? If not, you should give it a try, you would be surprise how your brain will develop its thinking in pictures and perhaps will help you to incorporate visual sign (like HOUSE) with your speech and might help people to understand you. This experience will be…I don’t know how to express it…you have to live it to understand it 🙂
I learnt French Sign Language 3 years ago out of curiosity and because I love languages. I didn’t know it would help me understand who I am and change my “vision”.
And last year, I learnt ASL in Rhode Island and I loved it!
I hope you are having a great day !
I was so very happy to see this! I am a 55 year old woman with double hearing aids due to severe hearing loss/birth defect. I work with the public as a cashier in a garden center. I frequently have people belittle me and call me ignorant, rude or stupid because I cannot hear their tone of voice. I simply tell them that I cannot hear them and please repeat what they have said. More attention needs to be brought to the plight of the hearing impaired. People would never call a person missing a limb stupid because they cannot use their arm or leg! Thank you for the information on the app. I will be installing it and using it daily. To anyone who reads this, please understand the hearing impaired and be patient. We are all unique, special and amazing people and no different than anyone else!
Hi Linda,
I’m really sorry for the late reply and I thought I would come to the blog to check if there are any comments and to my surprise there are 2 more comments !
I’m happy you shared your experience and at the mean time, I’m really sorry you have been facing rude people.
Do you wear a badge on your shirt stating you are Deaf? I hope you don’t feel sad because they don’t deserve your energy.
I believe it is our job to educate people and once they know it, if they are still rude, that means they are very mean people.
Like you said it, we are all unique, special and amazing people so let’s uplift each other 😉
I love this post! This is my first time coming to the website, and I love using ASL, even though I’m hearing. I learned a fair amount of ASL several years ago when I worked directly with a Deaf man; another of his Deaf brothers also worked there, but I didn’t have as much contact. It’s always bothered me seeing how your community is treated and I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to engage with folks using sign. I’m not great at it, but have been wanting to go back to college to get a degree and possibly become an interpreter later in life (I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old right now). You’ve inspired me to start working towards using both sign and CC. I’ve wanted to get into sewing more, so this might be a good way to interact with the community!
My father also has hearing loss and I think CC would help him a lot. When my parents come to visit, my dad often finds things to do where he doesn’t have to listen so much. I know he gets frustrated, and I’ve tried to encourage learning sign. The tips you gave are great for us hearing folk, easy to incorporate into our lives. Thanks for your post, it’s great!!
Hi Katie !
Sorry for the late reply, I thought it would go a bit unnoticed since the first two days of the publication.
I am so happy you loved this post and I thank you for taking a few of your times to share your experience 🙂
I hope you will pursue your initial goal and become an interpreter later in life.
Have you tried to incorporate sign language with your newborn? It would be a great way for you to get back to signing 🙂
There are so many ressources online regarding babies sign and how they can be beneficial for them.
Instagram can show you the outcome 🙂
Do you follow @whyisign? I love this account and if you dig, you might find account that teach babies sign?
Aged parents tend to deny their hearing loss but we can encourage them to accept it by playing down the situation. I’m glad you have found the tips useful and easy to incorporate in the daily life 🙂
Thank you again for your comment 🙂
Have a wonderful day !
Very interesting. I have hearing loss and have worn hearing aids since age 40. I hear “noise” but can’t understand often what’s being said or even what direction sounds come in. I completely identify with having to put my phone tight up to my ear when listening to a you tube tutorial and then not being able to see the video!
I now have to watch most tv, certainty all films on Tv with subtitles.
Hi Fiona, I apologize for the late reply and I thank you for your comment. I’m glad to see more and more people wear hearing aids without being embarrassed 🙂 Especially after 40 years old (my mom is 56 and she doesn’t want to wear them).
It is exactly what you said, we hear “noise” but don’t understand what is being said.
Also, people misconfused deafness with profoundly deaf only while there are several degrees of deafness.
I can identify with so much of this post. Thank you for writing it. I have had hearing loss since I was a young child and grew up learning how to adapt and cope with it. I was able to do that quite well, up until about 8 years ago when I began wearing hearing aids in both ears. I have a love/hate relationship with them. They help me hear better in some situations and don’t help me in others. I have had to learn to resist withdrawing from certain activities, although I have withdrawn from some. All of our tv shows or movies at home are always with close captioning, so I agree that having a well made video using close captioning (with captions that have been edited well) would be so much more helpful. It is definitely a challenge to help people understand hearing loss, but most of my friends have been very patient and understanding.