ICAAT encourages all companies, from startups to established companies, to provide communication access services for participants in their research and testing activities. Communication access services ensure communication is equally effective for all participants so that everyone can understand what is said or written and can convey messages, so they are understood by others.
In some cases, companies may provide specific communication access services to all participants in a research or testing event. For example, a company may provide automatic speech recognition (ASR) captioning for all participants if they are doing interviews over a videoconferencing platform, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. If you feel a provided access service does not meet your communication needs, you should make sure to state this upfront when inquiring about a recruitment opportunity. In other cases, a company may provide communication access services upon request, but the service must be requested by participants in advance of the research or testing event.
While ICAAT believes it is the responsibility of the event host to provide communication access services, it is the responsibility of participants to make their communication access needs known as early as possible. Communication access services can take time to arrange so making your need(s) known as soon as possible is important.
ICAAT provides companies with practical information on various communication access options for people with hearing loss and the best practices for implementing them. Communication access usually involves the provision of one or a combination of the following technologies and services: real-time captioning, assistive listening systems, or sign language interpretation. Equally important is setting communication ground rules for all participants about what is expected of them to support effective communication. If you are unfamiliar with or want to learn more about any of these technologies, services, or practices, you can read the Co-Design Essentials page for Industry on Communication Access.
