Five Ways to Include d/Deaf Users in Your Designs

Designing for everyone is not just good ethics. It is good business. Yet many digital products still leave d/Deaf users behind.

Think about the last time you watched a video without sound. Was the experience frustrating? For d/Deaf users, that frustration is constant and unavoidable.

The terms "deaf" and "Deaf" carry different meanings. A lowercase "d" refers to the audiological condition of hearing loss. An uppercase "D" refers to a cultural identity and community. Both groups deserve thoughtful, inclusive design.

According to the World Health Organization, over 430 million people worldwide live with disabling hearing loss. That is a significant audience to overlook. If your product ignores them, you are not just failing a moral test — you are leaving real users and revenue on the table.

So, where do you start? Here are five concrete, actionable ways to make your designs work for d/Deaf users from the ground up.

Include Visual Indicators of Audio Cues

Sound carries a lot of meaning in digital products. Notifications ping. Alerts chime. Error messages beep. When users cannot hear these cues, they miss critical information entirely.

Visual indicators solve this problem directly. A flashing screen, a banner notification, or an animated icon can replace the role that sound plays for hearing users. These are not workarounds — they are legitimate design tools.

Consider how you handle incoming calls or messages in an app. A hearing user gets an audio alert. A d/Deaf user needs a visual equivalent — something that grabs attention without relying on sound. Screen flashes, vibration patterns, and on-screen banners all work well here.

When designing visual alerts, contrast matters a great deal. A subtle animation buried in a corner will not cut it. The visual cue must be prominent enough to catch the user's eye, especially if they are looking elsewhere on the screen.

It is also worth checking how your visual indicators behave across different lighting conditions. A pale flash on a bright screen might be invisible outdoors. Test across real environments to confirm reliability.

Provide Text Equivalents of Audio Content

Audio content — podcasts, videos, voice notes, tutorials — is everywhere online. Without text equivalents, that content is simply inaccessible to d/Deaf users. Captions and transcripts change that entirely.

Captions display text in real time as audio plays. Transcripts provide a full written record that users can read at their own pace. Both serve important purposes, and neither is a luxury — they are accessibility essentials.

Auto-generated captions have improved significantly in recent years. Still, they are far from perfect. Accents, technical terms, and overlapping speech can trip up even the best AI captioning tools. Human review and editing remain the gold standard.

Good captions go beyond just words. They include speaker identification, relevant sound descriptions, and non-speech audio cues. Writing "[door slams]" or "[upbeat music playing]" gives d/Deaf users context they would otherwise miss.

Caption styling also matters. Use clear, readable fonts. Maintain strong colour contrast between text and background. Give users the ability to resize or reposition captions whenever possible. Small details like these make a genuine difference in usability.

Provide Sign Language

For many Deaf people, sign language is their first language. Written text — no matter how clearly written — can feel like a second language. Sign language interpretation offers a communication channel that feels natural and native.

Adding sign language to your digital product can take different forms. Some platforms embed sign language video alongside their main content. Others use animated avatars. Some rely on real interpreters for key sections like onboarding flows or customer support pages.

It is important to remember that sign language is not universal. British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL) are completely different languages. When serving international audiences, you need to account for regional sign language differences.

Sign language avatars powered by AI are improving quickly. However, they still struggle to capture the full range of expression that makes sign language rich and nuanced. Where possible, prioritise human interpreters for high-stakes content.

Even providing a basic sign language option shows your users that you see them. That kind of signal builds trust and loyalty in ways that polished visuals alone never will.

Write With d/Deaf People in Mind

Language choices matter enormously in inclusive design. The way you write can either invite d/Deaf users in or quietly push them out. Writing with this audience in mind starts with clarity.

Plain language principles help here. Use short sentences. Avoid jargon and idiomatic phrases that do not translate well across languages. Keep paragraph structures simple and predictable. These habits benefit all users, but they carry extra weight for those whose first language is a sign language rather than written text.

Avoid using the phrase "hearing impaired" unless a user specifically requests it. Many in the Deaf community find this term outdated and offensive. "d/Deaf" or "Deaf and hard of hearing" are more respectful and widely accepted alternatives.

Error messages and instructions deserve special attention. When something goes wrong, your writing needs to guide users clearly through the next step. Vague messages like "something went wrong" frustrate everyone — and they frustrate d/Deaf users even more when audio support is not available as a backup.

Writing with d/Deaf users in mind is not about dumbing content down. It is about cutting the fluff and saying what you mean. That is a skill worth developing for every audience you serve.

Test Designs With d/Deaf People

You can read every accessibility guideline ever written and still get things wrong. Real testing with real d/Deaf users reveals gaps that no checklist will catch. This is arguably the most important step of all.

User testing with d/Deaf participants surfaces usability issues that hearing designers simply cannot anticipate. Does your visual alert actually work in practice? Is your caption positioning blocking important content? Does your sign language video feel like an afterthought or a genuine feature? Only real users can answer those questions with accuracy.

Recruitment is often the hardest part of this process. Connect with Deaf-led organisations and community groups. Offer fair compensation for participants' time. Make your testing sessions themselves accessible — provide interpreters, use video relay services, and communicate in the user's preferred language.

Remote testing works well for d/Deaf users in many cases. Video conferencing platforms with caption support make sessions more comfortable. Record sessions with participant permission so you can review moments you might have missed.

Testing should not be a one-time event. Build d/Deaf users into your ongoing feedback loops. When you release new features, test with them again. Accessibility is not a box to tick — it is a practice to maintain.

Conclusion

Inclusive design is not a separate workstream from good design. It is the same thing. When you commit to including d/Deaf users in your process, the entire product gets better.

The five approaches covered here — visual indicators, text equivalents, sign language, inclusive writing, and user testing — work best together. No single fix makes a product fully accessible. Consistent effort across all these areas does.

Start wherever you can. If captions are missing from your videos, add them today. If you have never tested with a d/Deaf user, schedule your first session this month. Progress matters more than perfection.

The d/Deaf community is not waiting for your product to be perfect before forming an opinion of it. Every interaction they have with your design right now is already telling them something. Make sure it is the right message.