Many personal devices have transitioned from visual-controlled interfaces to speech-controlled interfaces to reduce costs and interactive friction, supported by the rapid growth in capabilities of speech-controlled interfaces, e.g., Amazon Echo or Apple's Siri. A consequence is that people who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) may be unable to use these speechcontrolled devices. We show that deaf speech has a high error rate compared to hearing speech, in commercial speechcontrolled interfaces. Deaf speech had approximately a 78% word error rate (WER) compared to a hearing speech 18% WER. Our findings show that current speech-controlled interfaces are not usable by DHH people. Based on our findings, significant advances in speech recognition software or alternative approaches will be needed for deaf use of speechcontrolled interfaces. We show that current speech-controlled interfaces are not usable by DHH people.

In this experience report, we describe the accessibility challenges that deaf, hard of hearing and hearing participants encounter in mixed group conversation when using personal devices with Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) applications. We discuss problems, and describe accessibility barriers in using these devices. We also describe best practices, as well as lessons learned, and pitfalls to avoid in using personal devices in conversation.

Abstract.For deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) viewers who cannot understand speech, many countries require video producers/distributors to provide speechto-text over the video, also called subtitles that can be turned on or off by the viewer. These subtitles must comply with national subtitle quality standards. The growth in video capable personal devices has shifted viewers away from watching broadcast video on a standardized television display and towards watching video on interactive personal devices. However, personal devices range widely from tiny watch displays to enormous television displays, with different proportions which impact subtitle readability. SubtitleFormatter automatically formats subtitles according to a display's screen size and minimum font size for reading. A user study of subtitle formatting evaluates subtitle readability, and finds that viewers preferred SubtitleFormatted-segmented subtitles over wrap around (arbitrarily-formatted) subtitles.