Sign language and your website: here's what you need to know
If you want to make your website digitally accessible, it is important that you also consider people who use sign language. Especially if this is someone's native language, this will affect how someone uses and interprets your website.
What is sign language?
Sign language is a language mainly used by people with auditory impairment. These are people who are deaf or hard of hearing. There is no universal sign language. Different countries have different sign languages. In the Netherlands, people use Dutch Sign Language (NGT). This language is very different from Dutch and has its own structure and grammar.
For some people, Dutch Sign Language is their mother tongue or first language. They then learn Dutch as a second language. As a result, they sometimes have difficulties with Dutch, for example in grammar, spelling or language comprehension.
Sign language and your website
If you want to make your website digitally accessible to people who use sign language, it is good to remember two things:
These visitors are likely to be deaf or hard of hearing
Dutch may not be their first language
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So it is important to take this into account on your website. Therefore, pay extra attention in your use of language. Also pay attention to the use of sound and make sure you offer an alternative for this.
Language
So for many sign language users, Dutch is not their first language. This sometimes makes it quite difficult to fully understand a website in Dutch. This is of course even more difficult if the language is very woolly or complicated.
Incidentally, it is a misconception that written language is a perfect alternative to sign language for these people. This was found in a Danish study, which examined the website use of deaf and hard-of-hearing users. It also investigated whether adding a sign language dictionary had an impact on this. With this dictionary, written concepts were explained in sign language. This study found that deaf users who used a dictionary were able to navigate the website more easily and complete certain tasks faster than deaf users without a dictionary.
Unfortunately, such a dictionary is currently not an option in most cases. Paying attention to your language then at least makes your website as accessible as possible. Make sure your language is clear and understandable. Explain complicated concepts or use a glossary, for instance. Of course, this also benefits other people, for instance people with low literacy levels.
Use of sound
If there is sound in your website, for example in a video or in a podcast, make sure that all the information is also available to someone who cannot hear (well). The most ideal option for visitors whose first language is sign language is to use a sign language interpreter. Using a sign language interpreter can also be a godsend for live sessions, such as consultations and webinars.
It is probably not always feasible to use a sign language interpreter. In that case, at least make sure there is a textual alternative for content where sound is important. For a podcast, you can provide a transcript. Videos can be subtitled.
Some video players, for example YouTube, automatically generate subtitles. However, this is often not good enough to understand the video properly, because of the many errors and the lack of punctuation. Automatic subtitling can provide a basis, though, so you don't have to do everything manually. In that case, make sure you check and correct these subtitles.
Sign language and the WCAG
There is a success criterion within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that deals specifically with sign language: success criterion 1.2.6: Sign Language. According to this success criterion, translation to sign language should be available for all pre-recorded audio and video. This success criterion is not mandatory under Dutch law. In fact, it is part of level AAA of the WCAG. According to the law, websites must only comply with levels A and AA.
Make your website accessible to sign language users
If you make sure the language of your website is not too complicated and make sure there is an accessible alternative for sound, your website will immediately be a lot more accessible for sign language users. Of course, digital accessibility is about more groups than just people with hearing disabilities. So make your website accessible to all users.
