Skrybe: Designing Features to Improve Real-Time Captioning for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students

  • Saba Kawas, Emmerline Wu, George Karalis | University Of Washington, Unversity of Washington, Microsoft

Today, real-time captioning services enable deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students to participate in classes with hearing students and teachers. However, these services were not designed specifically with DHH students in mind. Current solutions present a variety of user experience shortcomings and may limit students’ autonomy in the classroom. Furthermore, existing services are costly, utilizing human captioners, putting those options out of reach for budget-conscious schools. In this talk, we present our research which looks holistically at DHH students’ experiences using real-time captioning solutions. Our research considers usability, ease of use and students’ sentiments surrounding different captioning options. We employed a variety of HCI research methods to understand DHH needs, experiences and perspectives. We distilled our findings into design requirements and feature recommendations that could be implemented into new or existing real-time captioning systems, including low-cost machine-based solutions like Skype Translator and Microsoft Translator Connect, to better serve the needs of DHH students in inclusive classroom settings.

Series: Microsoft Research Talks