Tetsuji Kamiya
Director
All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People

Before discussing what people with hearing impairments expect from digital innovation, I would like to talk about the difficulties they are facing.  If digital innovation does not address the difficulties of the hearing impaired, then there is nothing they can expect from it. So, what kind of difficulties do the people with hearing impairments face, and what kind of solutions are available these days?  Let me give you some scenarios.

A common case in point is when a person with a hearing impairment could not hear announcements at a railroad station or inside public transportation.  When a vehicle gets stuck due to an accident, even if a voice announcement has been made, the situation may not be understood by people with hearing impairments.  In such cases, a visual display device such as an electronic bulletin board would help.

Recently, under the COVID-19 pandemic, many people wear masks when going out.  These masks interfere with the communication of people with hearing impairments. Many of them find it difficult to understand what the other person is saying, be it at a counter or reception desk when shopping or transacting.

It also happens that even in an incident or accident, proper information is not relayed to people with hearing impairments in a timely manner.  For example, granted there was an alarm sound, they might not have heard it.  If people with hearing impairments could not hear the alarm in case of a fire, they may not be able to escape in time.  In the event of a disaster, it is imperative that their safety is ensured through the right information relayed to them.

Currently, it is often required that the telephone be used as a means of communication for inquiries.  However, the telephone is something that people with hearing impairments find difficult to use.  Thus, they hope that other means such as e-mails may be considered as acceptable for use at the same time.

Furthermore, in the areas of education and labor, information accessibility for the hearing impaired must be improved.  It is not difficult to imagine how it must be for people with hearing impairments to be at school or at work and not be able to hear the words of their teachers and classmates, superiors and colleagues.

Recently, it is possible to receive broadcasts and communications via various media, but subtitles and text information are not always there alongside voice information.  This reality makes it difficult for people with hearing impairments to lead a normal social life, and in some cases, it can be critical in crisis situations.  The presence or absence of information determines the safety factor in case of a disaster.  Thus, subtitles and text information must be added in audiovisual materials.

What then are the expectations of people with hearing impairments in the future improvement of information and communication technology?  One of them is conversion into text by speech recognition technology.  At the moment, misrecognitions and misconversions still occur, but it is hoped that this technology would be further improved and made useful for the daily life of the hearing impaired.

At the same time, the performance of hearing aids and cochlear implants must be improved and diversified.  The same is true for information transmission devices that utilize light and vibration.  Furthermore, welfare equipment generally tends to be monotonous in design, thus there is a demand for products to cater to the individuality of the users.

It should be noted here that digitized communication is communication via some kind of device.  On the other hand, individual humans are not digital beings.  The absence of digital devices should not be an excuse for the failure to communicate.  It is important to communicate properly with or without digital technology.