This Deaf Awareness Week, our Design Intern Sam Russell shares his experience as a Deaf individual working within the design industry. Sam reflects on the progress that has been made and shares some of the steps still needed to create a truly inclusive world.
Hi, I’m Sam, a Design Intern at KD (Kinneir Dufort). I am also severely to profoundly Deaf. I have been deaf from birth and use both spoken English and British Sign Language depending on the context, e.g., who I am with, the environment that I am in, and my familiarity with the content that I am working on. For me being deaf is not just a label, it is an identity and one that I actively use every day in my design work.
Accessibility is an undeniable human right, with 1 in 5 people in the UK having some sort of disability, and an estimated collective spending power of £274 billion per year.* Yet why is it that these groups of people are continually overlooked?
NTU’s Equality Diversity & Inclusivity Conference
In September, I had the opportunity to attend Nottingham Trent University’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity in Design Conference. The conference had a whole host of talks and panels, spanning three main areas:
Each featured panellists from a range of diverse backgrounds to share their experiences around these topics. There were many takeaways, but two of the key ones were that disability is the largest diversity strand but lowest priority on the list when it comes to accommodating needs, and that everyone can be disabled whether, permanently, temporary, and situationally.
“We are not disabled by our bodies, but by the world around us. It is a social construct. Disability is nothing more than a brand, the world’s ugliest brand.” **
Liz Jackson, Founder and Chief Advocacy Officer of The Disabled List
The curb cut effect
The curb cut effect is where “laws and programs designed to benefit vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or people of colour, often end up benefiting all of society.” *** Examples of this effect can be seen in products such as:
Audiobooks: Originally designed for the visually impaired but enjoyed by anyone who enjoyed having a book read to them, or to listen to while driving.
Electric toothbrushes: originally designed for people with limited motor skills but now improving dental hygiene by being the most effective method of brushing.
As a Deaf person, an example of this effect can be seen in subtitles shown on videos. Which can provide so many benefits for both hearing and deaf groups. The benefits of subtitles are far reaching and can provide numerous benefits for those in hearing and deaf groups, including: accessing spoken content from different languages (how would most of us have enjoyed Squid Game when it landed on our screens in 2021?), ‘listening’ on-the-go when you’ve forgotten your headphones, and hearing whispered or heavily accented dialogue in movies.
Even though subtitles are proven to be beneficial to both communities, there is still a great deal of progress to be made in terms of the hearing and Deaf communities being fully integrated. In cinema viewings, subtitled showings are often pushed back two weeks after a film is released, leaving time for spoilers to be seen on social media.
Arguably we could take it one step further. Some examples could be applying subtitles to all cinematic viewings, enabling voice to text recognition in drive throughs, and even screens to allow BSL translations and even having clear announcement boards with text to notify passengers of a train cancellation or platform change. These services would not just allow access to the deaf community but hearing communities as well. They provide an additional level of communication and understanding that we can all can benefit from. So, when designing new products and services, it’s vital to think of how to allow parity of experience, benefitting as many user groups as possible.
What can we do within the industry?
It is time to step away from the current framework that is design thinking, which is relying on a process of designing for users. Instead, design with disabled users. By involving disabled users in all aspects of the design process, it recognises the value of our insights of lived experience, including us in journeys in which there will be an output that directly affects us.
There is the view that disability is something that needs to be fixed for people to live fulfilling lives. However, what is misunderstood, is that these groups often have a deep cultural background that led them to who they are today. Therefore, as an industry we need to be making these voices heard, by employing for new perspectives and opening conversations, facilitating workshops, and asking questions. A cultural shift starts with design consultancies employing/collaborating with disabled designers. I have posted on LinkedIn around these topics in the past, however, it is only now a year on in industry that I have started to recognise the barriers that are in place.
I would like to sign off the article with a quote from Design Can:
“Champion underrepresented talent, commission outside the same old networks & hire for fresh perspectives.”
– Design Can Manifesto
References
*https://wearepurple.org.uk/the-purple-pound-infographic/
**https://womentalkdesign.com/talks/designing-for-inclusivity/
***https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_curb_cut_effect
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