Seeing conversations in a different way...

...creating understanding on the path to empathy

WHAT IS #CLOSEDCAPTIONSFORADAY?
Deaf Awareness Week is 2-8th May, and on Thursday 4th
May, we are asking organisations and their staff to go
ClosedCaptionsForADay.

WHY?
We are asking organisations to encourage staff to put
closed captions/subtitles on so that they can experience,
in a small way, what it is like when attending virtual
meetings, and having to rely on closed captions because of
deafness.

This is about behaviour change, rather than simply

awareness – if staff can experience what it is like to have to
juggle listening as well as reading the words (which aren’t
always perfect), it will give them a greater understanding of
what their deaf colleagues may be feeling.

WHAT IS THIS GUIDE?

The following pages provide you and your workforce with
the details of how to switch closed captions on across
several popular video conferencing tools, and some
suggestions to make the most out of the experience on the
day...
WHAT TO DO BEFORE 4th MAY
It is important that your staff understand WHY
ClosedCaptionsForADay is being adopted. So we
suggest circulating this pack to your staff so that they
understand the reason behind the campaign, and why it
is important.

Did you know that 20% of the adult

population have a degree of hearing loss?

Video meetings have helped organisations to continue

going through the pandemic, but despite what people
think, video calls have caused a lot of frustration for
those who are deaf / hard of hearing.

Ø A large percentage of the deaf community RELY on

lip-reading to hear what is being said. Many hearing
people don’t put their cameras on when attending
meetings
Ø Closed captions are essential for the deaf, but they
aren’t perfect, when automatically generated. Where
strong accents are spoken, in particular, the incorrect
words are often displayed
Ø Lip-reading (where available), reading the closed
captions, reading the shared powerpoint slides, and
trying to piece everything together, is very mentally
taxing.
WHAT TO DO ON THE DAY 4th MAY
The objective is that by participating fully in the
campaign, you will learn more about what it is like for a
deaf person to rely on closed captions.

So – jump straight in!

On the following page you will find instructions on how

to switch closed captions on for a range of video
conferencing tools.

At the start of your meeting...

Ø Ask everyone to put closed captions on. If they
haven’t seen this pack, provide a summary of why this
campaign is important
Ø Optionally, ask everyone to put cameras on. The
ability to lipread dramatically helps a deaf person to
understand what is being said

At the end of the meeting...

Ø Ask what the experience has been for the team –
did anything stand out for them?
Ø Please consider posting just a short note on social
media that summarises what the team learned – it
would greatly help spread the message of the
campaign.
HOW TO TURN ON CLOSED CAPTIONS

MS-TEAMS

To use closed captions in a meeting, go to

your meeting controls and select More
options > Turn on live captions.

GOOGLE MEET
To use live captions, join a Google Meet
video call.
At the bottom of the screen, click
To turn them off, click

ZOOM
As meeting host...
Login to Zoom and go to Settings – In
Meetings (Advanced) – select ‘Automated
Captions’
As meeting attendee...
Select and the meeting host will be
alerted to turn closed captions on for you
SPREADING THE WORD!
The #ClosedCaptionsForADay is being promoted by the
WeSupportDeafAwareness campaign, and so tagging the
following would be much appreciated:

#WeSupportDeafAwareness
#ClosedCaptionsForADay

If you’d like to follow us/learn more, please reach out in the

following ways

TWITTER: @deaf_aware
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wesupportdeafawareness
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wesupportdeafawareness

EMAIL: simon@WeSupportDeafAwareness.org

#WeSupportDeafAwareness
The #WeSupportDeafAwareness campaign was started by
Simon Houghton, someone with a significant hearing loss,
having struggled during the COVID pandemic.
After experiencing challenges in communicating due to lack of
understanding of deaf needs, the behaviour change specialist
set up the campaign to help organisations and their staff
communicate with more empathy, patience and kindness.
Since April 12th 2021, he has provided access to the online training to over 250,000
employees across the NHS, emergency services, FTSE100 corporations, charities,
trade unions, county councils, universities and SMEs, both in the UK and abroad.

If you’d like to learn more about the campaign and online training, please email
simon@WeSupportDeafAwareness.org or visit our website
www.WeSupportDeafAwareness.org