How People with Disabilities Use Digital Technology.
Speech Disabilities.
Speech disabilities
affect how people speak,
including not speaking,
or speaking in a range of different
patterns, pitches and sounds.
Some people do not speak at all.
This can include people
who are Deaf,
autistic, have injured or no vocal organs,
or have other conditions
impacting physical
or cognitive speech production.
Unfortunately,
although it's a common misperception,
speaking differently
is not an indication of a person's
intellectual capabilities.
Many people stutter, pause,
or pronounce words
in a range of different
patterns, pitches and utterances
due to various disabilities.
While you might be able to understand me,
automatic speech recognition systems
often don't.
Some people use a variety of different
assistive technologies
to generate speech.
I use software for generating speech,
which is often
not recognized
by automatic speech recognition.
Websites and apps
that require speech input
can be a barrier for people
with speech disabilities,
especially when they rely on
automatic speech recognition.
Instead,
websites and apps such as customer
support systems
need to provide alternatives
to voice calls, like chat or email.
You can help make
technology accessible to me.
Accessibility: It's about people.
For more information from the Web Accessibility Initiative
on how people with Disabilities use Digital Technology.
visit w3.org/WAI/people