Encouraging the learning of written language by deaf users: Web recommendations and practices

There are still various access barriers for deaf users on the Web. Previous studies and accessibility guidelines recommend that text should be written in a simple and clear mode. However, this recommendation is not always possible or applicable, and it does not include deaf users as content producers as well. Instead of trying to simplify or translate all the web content to sign language or simple text language, in this paper we explore how images, avatars and simple text explanations could be used to encourage the learning of written language. This article presents a set of recommendations, prototypes and practices with 15 deaf students and 2 teachers aiming to evaluate design alternatives related to deaf literacy using web resources. The objective is to include the deaf users as text producers and facilitate the communication between hearing and deaf users on synchronous and asynchronous artifacts. Results point out the potentiality, advantages and limitations of the proposed design alternatives and prototypes.