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Authors: Raja Kushalnagar, Christian Vogler, Abraham Glasser, Matthew Seita, Mariana Arroyo Chavez, Keith Delk, Paige S Devries, Molly Feanny, Bernard Thompson, James M. Waller
Venue: Proceedings of the 22nd International Web for All Conference (W4A 2025) (2025). doi:10.1145/3744257.3744269
This paper describes the challenges that deaf and hard of hearing people face with creating accessible multimedia content, such as portfolios, instructional videos and video presentations. Unlike content consumption, the process of content creation itself remains highly inaccessible, creating barriers to employment in all stages of recruiting, hiring, and carrying out assigned job duties. Overcoming these barriers incurs a "deaf content creation tax" that translates into requiring significant additional time and resources to produce content equivalent to what a non-disabled person would produce. We highlight this process and associated challenges through real-world examples experienced by the authors, and provide guidance and recommendations for addressing them.
In this paper we have described the challenges that DHH people face with content creation in a hearing-centric voice-oriented world. It is no exaggeration to state that there is a “deaf multimedia authoring tax,” which in one example was calculated to require at least 10 extra hours of work. There are potential solutions that may be feasible today or in the near future by enhancing the technical capabilities of content creation tools. Until this problem is addressed, however, DHH people will be at significant competitive disadvantages in modern employment contexts.
