Deaf and Hard of Hearing Smartphone Users: Intersectionality and the Penetration of Ableist Communication Norms

Abstract

This article shows how smartphone usage among deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) people is shaped by “normative” communication values, and how smartphones, despite seeming accessible, can reproduce hegemonic communicative norms. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews conducted in Israel shows that social norms of voice calls impact other smartphone interactions, such that people who cannot perform voice calls are required to obey vocal norms of immediacy even while interacting accessibly through text-based instant messaging (IM) apps or video calls. Drawing on critical disability studies, we show how deaf and HoH smartphone users’ communicative practices vary according to the intersections of their audiological status with other stigmatized positions, which has profound implications for our understanding of media accessibility.