Is Telehealth Accessible for Deaf Patients?
“We’ve moved too fast.” Telehealth has transformed healthcare, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, but is it truly accessible for everyone?
Despite numerous laws mandating equal access, deaf patients still face significant barriers with telehealth:
- Lack of captions, with additional features such as font size and display options
- Limited ability to add a third party (e.g., interpreters, family members) via a third screen
- Inconsistent accessibility across different telehealth platforms and healthcare systems
💡 These insights came from powerful discussions at the 2024 NextGen Accessibility Summit hosted by TDI on information and communication technologies: https://tdiforaccess.org/.
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Transcript and Video Description
Video Description: The post has a video thumbnail with a blue background. The top has a logo of TDI with “2024: NextGen Accessibility Summit” with the middle "Telehealth falls short for many" in white text with rose background. A woman with blonde wavy hair is sitting in front of the camera with shelves, books, and decorative items behind her. She is wearing a navy blouse. Four other panelists are below.
Transcript: Telehealth—being able to access a doctor remotely via video—has added an entire new layer that's truly increased a lot since COVID-19. Before 2020, telehealth was a thing, it was around, but now it's becoming common, even the norm, for a lot of medical appointments to be done through telehealth instead of in the office. With telehealth, I think we’ve moved too fast. We need to slow down - wait, and ask: “Is telehealth accessible for patients, especially for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and other marginalized groups?” Zoom and FaceTime have captioning options for different sizes and fonts, but telehealth often doesn’t. You have no option for transcription or captions. Healthcare is a really important scenario—where it could be life or death—and we have a right to equal access. Even some of the basic things, like captions that are built into other platforms like Zoom, are completely missing in telehealth. There are also platforms that only have to the ability to have two parties—the patient and the provider—and they don’t allow access for a third party. That third party could be a third screen or third user, like an interpreter, or it could be a family member, companion, or advocate; someone who is stepping into that role as a third party. But they might struggle because the platform doesn’t have the technological ability to include a third party. So, those barriers are still there. Medicine is truly behind some of the other technological advancements. [The screen fades to show a thumbnail of a faded white background of a doctor holding hands with another individual.] Deaf. Healthy. DeafHealth. Learn more at www.deafhealthaccess.org.] [The screen fades to show a logo of TDI].