Design Implications for a Ubiquitous Ambient Sound Display for the Deaf

Previous work already investigated the value of ambient sound visualizations for deaf and hearing-impaired people. Our work builds upon these results and specifically explores the applicability of the ceiling for such visualizations. Thus, we gathered design requirements based on a participatory design process including expert interviews, an online questionnaire as well as a design workshop at a local organization for deaf people. Results from the workshop showed that people highly approved the idea to use the ceiling for ambient visualizations. However, they also expressed a strong need for a supplementary traditional display to get more detailed information about occurring sounds. The implications that we derived in the present study build the basis for a prototype that we currently develop at our research group.