Tools and testing
Hearing
- Last reviewed
- 9 August 2026
Tools and techniques to help you test for hearing accessibility.
Hearing impairments
Hearing impairments can affect how people perceive and interact with digital content.
Common conditions and situations include:
partial hearing loss deafness difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments tinnitus ear infections progressive hearing loss
Barriers to consider
Hearing impairments can make it difficult to:
understand audio-only content use services that rely on the phone understand complex language, including for some British Sign Language (BSL) users understand low-quality or quiet audio notice audio-only notifications
How to test
Start with automated checks
Automated tools can identify some accessibility issues, but they cannot check whether audio, captions or other content work well for people with hearing impairments.
You can use accessibility testing tools to identify common issues.
See [Find and use tools] for more information about these tools and when to use them.
Do manual checks
Check that:
videos have accurate captions transcripts are available where appropriate notifications have a visual alternative to audio audio is clear and at a suitable volume users can control the volume important information is not provided through audio alone content uses clear and simple language
Test audio and communication
Test the parts of your service that rely on hearing or speech.
For example, check that users can access important information without hearing an audio message and that services do not rely only on telephone communication.
Consider whether BSL or other forms of communication may be appropriate for your users.
Understand user needs
Accessibility personas can help you understand how people with different access needs might experience your service. They are a starting point for identifying user needs and deciding what to test.
Saleem – deaf user
Saleem is fluent in British Sign Language (BSL). He uses captions and clear content to navigate websites.
He needs:
plain language and clear, structured content videos with accurate captions communication using BSL where possible
[View Saleem's profile and task]