Definitions of terms

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Contents 1 Definitions of terms 1.1 Podcast 1.2 Deafness 1.3 Visual impairment 1.4 Manual impairment

[edit] 1 Definitions of terms

[edit] 1.1 Podcast

In this report the term ‘podcast’ refers to both audio and video resources.

[edit] 1.2 Deafness

There are around 8,945,000 deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK ¹, . People with mild deafness can have some difficulty following speech, mainly in noisy situations. People with moderate deafness may have difficulty following speech without a hearing aid. People with severe deafness rely a lot on lipreading, even with a hearing aid and sign language may be their first or preferred language. People with profound deafness may have sign language as their first or preferred language but some prefer to lipread.

¹ RNID: Deafness statistics: http://www.rnid.org.uk/information_resources/aboutdeafness/statistics/

[edit] 1.3 Visual impairment

There are around two million people in the UK with a sight problem. RNIB defines people with a sight problem as people who, while wearing glasses, are still unable to recognise someone across the road or have difficulty reading newsprint ². This ranges from people with little or no useful sight to people with a mild impairment.

² RNIB: About sight loss: http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib003680.hcsp

[edit] 1.4 Manual impairment

There are no available statistics on the numbers of people who have a manual impairment. This group includes people who have difficulty using a mouse and/or a keyboard. There are many different pointing devices, alternative keyboards, and switch-controlled devices that support people with manual impairments. The important design principle for this group is to enable interaction via the keyboard alone.

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