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Is Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) an accommodation option, yet?

Presented at 11:30am in Denver 1-3 on Thursday, November 17, 2022.

#36622

Speaker(s)

  • Sheryl Ballenger, Manager of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, Georgia Tech- College of Design

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Gain an awareness of the importance of equitable access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Now that auto-generated captions are ubiquitous, what do we do with them?

Abstract

Building in accessibility for courses is becoming more prevalent. The COVID-19 pandemic and shift to online learning highlighted the urgent need for accessibility. For deaf and hard of hearing students some accommodations were provided using auto-generated captions, or automatic speech recognition tools (ASR). Our captioning industry has been saying for years auto-generated captions was coming. Is ASR an equitable accommodation for Deaf and heard of hearing students? Research data will be shared concerning the accuracy of ASR and possible settings for ASR as an accommodation.

Keypoints

  1. Gain an awareness of the importance of equitable access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals
  2. Recognize the importance of incorporating accessibility into online learning programs.
  3. Acknowledge at least 3 best practices applied to real-time captioning.

Disability Areas

All Areas, Deaf/Hard of Hearing

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Assistive Technology, Captioning/Transcription, Uncategorized, Universal Design for Learning

Speaker Bio(s)

Sheryl Ballenger

Sheryl has a doctorate from the University of Georgia, with research in audism and transition for Deaf adults. She is the Education Lead and Manager of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation in the College of Design at Georgia Tech and teaches courses on accessibility. She is an IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). She holds professional certification as a Teacher of the Deaf and is a parent advisor for Georgia PINES. Her past includes serving colleges as a Disability Services Provider.