Aug 8, 2026 A simple thought experiment: imagine waking up tomorrow and finding you’ve lost your hearing completely. Your phone is still there. The internet still works. But everything you used to consume through your ears, all of it is gone.
This isn’t hypothetical drama. It’s the daily reality of 430 million people worldwide living with disabling hearing loss. Today, you’ll live it hour by hour, to see precisely what screens designed for hearing take away from those who can’t.
7:00 AM – Waking Up to the News
| 07:00 A breaking news video |
| You open your favourite news app. A “breaking news” clip, the reporter’s face is tense, the camera shaky, they’re speaking fast. No captions. You wait. Nothing. Next clip, same. Third, fourth. Finally a written article. You learn what’s happening for the first time since you opened your phone. |
| What you lost: At least 8 minutes of delay before learning breaking news affecting your own area. |
8:30 AM – Connecting with Work
| 08:30 A video meeting without real-time captions |
| A regular team meeting on the video platform. You open the app, no automatic captions. You ask the manager to enable them. “I don’t know how,” he says. You try from Settings yourself, the option exists but accuracy is 60%. The word “strategy” becomes “stretchery.” You decide to lip-read and hope you don’t miss anything important. |
| What you lost: Decisions made in the meeting that you won’t fully know until someone sends the minutes later. |
12:00 PM – Lunch Break and Social Media
| 12:00 Social media – half a feed you can’t access |
| You open Instagram. A funny video; no captions. Another clip that seems hilarious because everyone’s laughing in the comments, but you don’t know why. A sports podcast. A Reel where someone speaks with great enthusiasm about something. An image with audio description only. You scroll fast, not because the content is bad, but because half of it or more is unintentionally closed off to you. |
| What you lost: A peer-reviewed academic study found Deaf users score 6.1 out of 7 on “feeling excluded” (the highest response). |
Source: Mack et al., Social App Accessibility for Deaf Signers, peer-reviewed CHI study
3:00 PM – A Government Transaction
| 15:00 The e-government portal |
| You try to renew an official document through the digital portal. The site has instructional video guides only – no text alternative. You look for a written version – not available. You go to call support, then remember. You search for a “live chat” option, the site says “phone support is preferred for immediate assistance.” |
| What you lost: A transaction delayed – because every help channel assumed you could hear. |
8:00 PM – Evening Entertainment
| 20:00 The streaming platform |
| You open a streaming service. You search for a film -you always check for the “CC” icon first. You find one that looks compelling, no Arabic subtitles, English only. Another, captions exist but auto-generated at 80% accuracy, colloquial dialogue is garbled. A third option finally works. You press play. After 20 minutes of searching. |
| What you lost: 20 minutes of leisure time spent searching for accessible content rather than actually enjoying it. |
Your Day’s Tally – What Did You Lose in 24 Hours?
| Time | What happened? | What did you lose? |
| 07:00 | Breaking news with no captions | 8 minutes of delay learning news affecting your area |
| 08:30 | Work meeting with incomplete captions | Important decisions arrived late or incomplete |
| 12:00 | Social media partially blocked | Social exclusion: clips and laughs you’ll never understand |
| 15:00 | Government transaction stalled | An extra working day to finish a routine task |
| 20:00 | 20 minutes searching for accessible content | Rest time turned into search time |
“I feel excluded when I see everyone laughing at a clip I can’t understand. The problem isn’t my ears — it’s the decision made by whoever designed that clip.”
Direct quote from an interview in: Mack et al., Social App Accessibility for Deaf Signers (CHI 2021)
What’s the Difference Between a Website That Receives You and One That Doesn’t?
This hypothetical day isn’t pessimism; it’s a description of the current reality on most digital platforms. But the difference between a frustrating experience and a smooth one isn’t about rebuilding everything from scratch. It’s about specific decisions:
| ✅ What Makes the Day Different? |
| Accurate text captions for video, turns 7 a.m. from frustration into information. |
| A sign language avatar on primary content – addresses the Deaf user in their first language, not their second. |
| Text-based support options as an alternative to phone – because a Deaf user can’t make a voice call. |
| A site structure that announces content to screen readers and assistive devices. |
The Closing: 24 Hours Is Enough to Understand
Today, you didn’t lose your ability to achieve or your enthusiasm for life. You simply experienced what it feels like when the digital world is built on the assumption that everyone can hear.
Deaf users are not asking for a special or separate experience. They are asking for something much simpler: that the digital experiences we create do not become barriers that cut them off from the world.
Now that you’ve spent these 24 hours in their shoes, imagine facing the same challenge every single day of the year. Then imagine you’re the one behind the screen – designing websites, products, or platforms – with the power to change that reality.
Don’t let inaccessible design stand between you and your users. Create digital experiences that everyone can use. Start your journey toward digital inclusion today with hemam.io
