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May 2, 2008
Yahoo! Live empowers deaf users to chat online
Sometimes you stumble across use cases of your products that you just did not expect. During my talk at the Accessibility 2.0 conference last week I pointed out that technology that seemingly is a stumbling block for accessibility can actually be a benefit for disabled users.
The example was the ease of being able to annotate and caption photos in Flickr enticing a lot more users to enter sensible captions and text which in return makes it easier to find the photos and describe them to non-sighted users.
Now we found out via Amy Cohen Efron's blog "Deaf World as Eye see it" that deaf users have discovered Yahoo Live as an opportunity to chat online.

This is wonderful news, and proof that products that are on the bleeding edge and use technologies with a reputation for inaccessibility can actually benefit users overcome boundaries and make them communicate using "web 2.0" products despite their disability.
It is also a great example that accessibility is about all kind of disabilities, and that technology can be the solution rather than a hindrance.
More reading:
- LaRonda Zupp on the addictiveness of Yahoo! Live for the deaf community
- Scott Gatz on decisions being made to make Yahoo! Live inclusive for all users
Yahoo Developer Network
Posted at May 2, 2008 10:18 AM | Permalink
Comments
i am deaf person from dubai for indian in kerala
Posted by: rajesh at May 13, 2009 5:06 AM
hi i am deaf
Posted by: beverly fuhler at November 16, 2009 11:24 AM
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