Last week, while scrolling through a social media channel, I stumbled upon an interesting article from NPR. The article's subject is "that more than half of the 1,260 Americans surveyed say they're watching shows with subtitles on because the soundtracks are too hard to understand."
I found it interesting, but not surprising, that closed captioning has evolved from a dedicated accessibility solution for the Deaf and hard of hearing to an everyday convenience utilized by a broad spectrum of people.
Think about it: the parent trying to keep the volume down while their child naps, or someone in a noisy coffee shop wanting to catch every line of dialogue.
While reading the article, a familiar phrase popped into my head: "Essential for some, useful for all." Coined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), this phrase emphasizes that when we build for accessibility, we don't just benefit one segment of the population. It turns out that making things accessible often makes things better for everyone!
Another example of something developed for the Deaf community that has gone mainstream is texting.
A human author creates the DubBlog posts. The AI tool Gemini is sometimes used to brainstorm subject ideas, generate blog post outlines, and rephrase certain portions of the content. Our marketing team carefully reviews all final drafts for accuracy and authenticity. The opinions and perspectives expressed remain the sole responsibility of the human author.
The idea for Short Message Service (SMS) originated in 1984 through the Franco-German Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) partnership. Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert envisioned it as a communication tool for the Deaf community. The first real-world test came on December 3, 1992, when Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms, sent the message "Merry Christmas" to Richard Jarvis at Vodafone. Given that mobile phones of the era didn't feature keyboards, Papworth typed his historic greeting on a PC. This innovation of SMS fundamentally reshaped the telecommunications industry by offering a bandwidth-efficient alternative to voice calls. ~ 6 technologies inspired by the Deaf
For some context, a few quick statistics from 2024
- Five billion people worldwide send and receive text messages.
- 90% of customers prefer text messages over phone calls.
- 5.9 billion people are expected to be able to send and receive text messages by 2025.
Courtesy of Truelist - Texting Statistics – 2024
The deaf community's influence over the past 20 years has directly led to the development and improvement of technologies such as video calling platforms designed for sign language users to see each other and communicate. Now, video calling is a standard feature on smartphones, tablets, and computers, and it is used for personal and professional communication by hearing and Deaf individuals. Once again, it underscores that while not everyone has a critical need for these technologies, they can still benefit everyone by making things easier, more efficient, or more enjoyable.
Resources
- 6 technologies inspired by the Deaf
- Survey: Why America is obsessed with subtitles
- More than half of Americans use subtitles because audio is 'muddled,' survey finds
- 80% of People Prefer Video Subtitles. Here's How They Affect Engagement
- Read all about it: The popularity of turning captions on
A human author creates the DubBlog posts. The AI tool Gemini is sometimes used to brainstorm subject ideas, generate blog post outlines, and rephrase certain portions of the content. Our marketing team carefully reviews all final drafts for accuracy and authenticity. The opinions and perspectives expressed remain the sole responsibility of the human author.
