Background - Deaf people and people with hearing impairments
Facts about deafness and hearing impairments and making communication accessible
There are a large number of people in the UK who have hearing impairments - the Royal National Institute for Deaf People puts the number at almost 9 million.
Most of them have lost their hearing over time and many are older. More than 50 per cent of people over the age of 60 have some hearing loss.
Losing hearing as they get older can isolate people and they may have limited access to information.
A far smaller number of people are born deaf or are completely deaf. People who are profoundly deaf may or may not use British Sign Language (BSL), although this is more likely if they were born deaf.
Estimates are difficult but the BBC suggests that there are between 50,000 and 70,000 people for whom BSL is their first or only language.
Many BSL users are proud to be deaf and draw their identity from being part of a linguistic and cultural minority.
Accessible communication for people who are deaf or have hearing impairments
Subtitling and signing of television and film, including via DVD, has made a big difference to the lack of information and isolation often experienced by people with hearing impairments.
People with hearing impairments have broadly welcomed many digital format innovations. However, many new technologies, especially those relying on a Web 2.0 approach, such as social media and user-generated content, use a mixture of both audio and visual interactions. It is important that when these are used someone can access all of the information or process.
People providing support or back office functions need to ensure that their services are open and accessible to people who use textphones or services such as Type-Talk.
,