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How To Design For (And With) Deaf People
Practical UX guidelines to keep in mind for 466 million people who experience hearing loss. More design patterns in Smart Interface Design Patterns, a friendly video course on UX and design patterns by Vitaly.
- Vitaly Friedman
- Dec 30, 2025
- 0 comments
How To Design For (And With) Deaf People
- 8 min read
- UX,
Accessibility,
Design
About The Author
Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX …
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Practical UX guidelines to keep in mind for 466 million people who experience hearing loss. More design patterns in Smart Interface Design Patterns, a friendly video course on UX and design patterns by Vitaly.
When we think about people who are deaf, we often assume stereotypes, such as “disabled” older adults with hearing aids. However, this perception is far from the truth and often leads to poor decisions and broken products.
Let’s look at when and how deafness emerges, and how to design better experiences for people with hearing loss.
[A diagram illustrates sign language with a torso, hands, and blue lines indicating 'SPACE' and 'TIME,' beside blue text stating 'Sign language is four-dimensional.]
*Sign language is 4-dimensional, including 3D space and time, and often includes facial expressions, too. From a wonderful talk by Marie van Driessche. (Large preview)*
Deafness Is A Spectrum
Deafness spans a broad continuum, from minor to profound hearing loss. Around 90–95% of deaf people come from hearing families, and deafness often isn’t merely a condition that people are born with. It frequently occurs due to exposure to loud noises, and it also emerges with age, disease, and accidents.
[A chart showing sound frequencies and decibel levels, illustrating types of hearing loss and common everyday sounds.]
A chart showing sound frequencies and decibel levels, illustrating types of hearing loss and common everyday sounds. (Large preview)
The loudness of sound is measured in units called decibels (dB). Everybody is on the spectrum of deafness, from normal hearing (up to 15 dB) to profound hearing loss (91+ dB):
- Slight Hearing Loss, 16–25 dB
At 16 dB hearing loss, a person can miss up to 10% of speech when a speaker is at a distance greater than 3 feet.
- Mild hearing loss, 26–40 dB
Soft sounds are hard to hear, including whispering, which is around 40 dB in volume. It’s more difficult to hear soft speech sounds spoken at a normal volume. At 40dB hearing loss, a person may miss 50% of meeting discussions.
- Moderate hearing loss, 41–55 dB
A person may hear almost no speech when another person is talking at normal volume. At a 50dB hearing loss, a person may not pick up to 80% of speech.
- Moderately Severe Hearing Loss, 56–70 dB
A person may have problems hearing the sounds of a dishwasher (60dB). At 70 dB, they might miss almost all speech.
- Severe Hearing Loss, 71–90 dB
A person will hear no speech when a person is talking at a normal level. They may hear only some very loud noises: vacuum (70 dB), blender (78 dB), hair dryer (90 dB).
- Profound Hearing Loss, 91+ dB
Hear no speech and at most very loud sounds such as a music player at full volume (100 dB), which would be damaging for people with normal hearing, or a car horn (110 dB).
It’s worth mentioning that loss of hearing can also be situational and temporary, as people with “normal” hearing (0 to 25 dB hearing loss) will always encounter situations where they can’t hear, e.g., due to noisy environments.
Useful Things To Know About Deafness
Assumptions are always dangerous, and in the case of deafness, there are quite a few that aren’t accurate. For example, most deaf people actually do not know a sign language — it’s only around 1% in the US.
Also, despite our expectations, there is actually no universal sign language that everybody uses. For example, British signers often cannot understand American signers. There are globally around 300 different sign languages actively used.
“We never question making content available in different written or spoken languages, and the same should apply to signed languages.”
[Three smartphone screens displaying parts of a podcast app, including a browsing page, a now-playing screen with an avatar, and a live transcription feature.]
Heardio concept: making podcasts accessible for deaf people — with live transcription and sign language avatars. (Large preview)
Sign languages are not just gestures or pantomime. They are 4D spatial languages with their own grammar and syntax, separate from spoken languages, and they don’t have a written form. They rely heavily on facial expression to convey meaning and emphasis. And they are also not universal — every country has its own sign language and dialects.
- You can only understand 30% of words via lip-reading.
- Most deaf people do not know any sign language.
- Many sign languages have local dialects that can be hard to interpret.
- Not all deaf people are fluent signers and often rely on visual clues.
- For many deaf people, a spoken language is their second language.
- Sign language is 4-dimensional, incorporating 3D space, time and also facial expressions.
How To Communicate Respectfully
Keep in mind that many deaf people use the spoken language of their country as their second language. So to communicate with a deaf person, it’s best to ask in writing. Don’t ask how much a person can understand, or if they can lip-read you.
However, as Rachel Edwards noted, don’t assume someone is comfortable with written language because they are deaf. Sometimes their literacy may be low, and so providing information as text and assuming that covers your deaf users might not be the answer.
Also, don’t assume that every deaf person can lip-read. You can see only about 30% of words on someone’s mouth. That’s why many deaf people need additional visual cues, like text or cued speech.
7 accessibility symbols for people with hearing loss. Universal signs for hearing loss. (Large preview)
It’s also crucial to use respectful language. Deaf people do not always see themselves as disabled, but rather as a cultural linguistic minority with a unique identity. Others, as Meryl Evan has noted, don’t identify as deaf or hard of hearing, but rather as “hearing impaired”. So, it’s mostly up to an individual how they want to identify.
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