Towards Co-Creating Access and Inclusion: A Group Autoethnography on a Hearing Individual's Journey Towards Effective Communication in Mixed-Hearing Ability Higher Education Settings

Document Title

Towards Co-Creating Access and Inclusion: A Group Autoethnography on a Hearing Individual’s Journey Towards Effective Communication in Mixed-Hearing Ability Higher Education Settings

Document Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Inclusion and Communication in Mixed-Hearing Ability Environments
• Keywords: Mixed ability, American Sign Language (ASL), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Higher education, Inclusion, Assistive technology, Group autoethnography, Information socialization, Accessibility technology, Multimodal communication

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Hearing individuals have limited ability to learn effective communication with Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) individuals in mixed-hearing ability environments, especially in contexts heavily reliant on visual and technology-mediated communication.
  • Current communication technologies (e.g., automatic speech recognition) suffer from inaccuracies and delays, making it difficult to meet the diverse needs of DHH users.
  • The mutual adaptation and co-creation of inclusive dialogue between hearing and DHH individuals have been minimally explored in existing research.

• Significance:

  • Mixed-hearing ability teams need to collaborate and use technology to share information, advancing inclusivity in higher education and research settings.
  • Enhancing hearing individuals' understanding of DHH culture and communication habits helps reduce common communication breakdowns and misunderstandings.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Existing research has made progress in areas like designing automatic captions and analyzing DHH user behavior patterns, but there is a lack of long-term studies on how hearing individuals learn to interact effectively with DHH individuals.
  • This study aims to fill this research gap, particularly by using group autoethnography to reveal the applicability and limitations of technology in various contexts.

Solution

• Proposed Solution:

  • Employ group autoethnography to systematically document and reflect on the journey of a hearing student learning to communicate in a sign language-dominant research environment.
  • Provide three technology-mediated communication strategies (guiding visual attention, pausing and resuming, using expressive bodily feedback).
  • Summarize the strengths and limitations of technology in different social scenarios to inform inclusive design in mixed-hearing ability environments.

• Innovative Aspects:

  • Extend the application of group autoethnography to study long-term communication interactions between hearing and DHH individuals in higher education settings.
  • Emphasize the process of mutual adaptation: hearing individuals learn inclusive communication through understanding DHH culture, while DHH individuals provide contextual suggestions to help hearing individuals improve.
  • Propose specific improvements for existing assistive technologies (e.g., ASR) addressing their design flaws.

• Implementation Steps:

  • Conduct a ten-week immersive experience during a National Science Foundation-funded summer research program.
  • Collect data through the hearing participant H1’s journals, group meeting records, and feedback from DHH mentors.
  • Analyze data using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding to extract key themes.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:

  • Proposed three technology-mediated communication strategies:

    1. Guiding Visual Attention: Use writing, highlighting, screen sharing, etc., to direct visual focus.
    2. Pausing and Resuming: Ensure collective attention before continuing conversations, waiting or repeating key information as necessary.
    3. Expressive Bodily Feedback: Use visual signals like nodding or eyebrow raising to confirm communication progress.

  • Categorized and summarized the use of technology in common learning scenarios (e.g., large-scale lectures, group discussions, hybrid meetings), evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each technology.

  • Provided design recommendations:

    • Enhance technology’s ability to perceive and guide visual attention, promoting alignment of information across participants.
    • Optimize transitions between technologies to reduce communication interruptions.
    • Improve visual support for user adaptation and repair processes, fostering mutual adjustment.

• Comparative Advantages:

  • By immersing a hearing individual in a sign language-dominant environment, this study offers a more practical solution for cross-cultural communication.
  • The proposed methods are more adaptable to diverse environments compared to existing assistive technologies (e.g., automatic captions).
  • The use of group autoethnography introduces a novel tool for reflecting on the relationship between technology and communication.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • H1’s ASL proficiency, ability to guide visual attention, and technical skills improved significantly over the ten-week period.
  • The deep involvement and continuous feedback from DHH mentors (D1-D4) greatly enhanced H1’s adaptability.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • The current study sample is limited to STEM-focused higher education environments and does not cover broader populations and contexts.
  • The ten-week research period may be insufficient to observe long-term cultural and behavioral changes.
  • Future research should explore sign language learning among elderly DHH individuals, technology adaptation in different environments, and further optimization of group autoethnography for multicultural communication studies.