What Would Digital Inclusion and Equity for the Deaf Look Like?

In the past several years, our society has learned more, faster than ever before. However, the flow of information in our digital world is interrupted by serious accessibility barriers for the deaf community. Navigating the hearing world with few accommodations and limited resources—including broadband and online access to training and professional development—is holding some people back. While there are clear laws—e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) of 2010—to protect people with disabilities, including deaf people, and to ensure effective access to information, there is a need to modernize these laws in regards to telecommunications. This has become more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for those who are of lower socioeconomic status. We need to better understand how accessibility barriers have contributed to a lack of planning and career development for the deaf community.