This webinar, the fifth in the series, will help you learn about speech, language, and cultural access needs. After this webinar, you will understand more about what makes a more user-friendly experience for those who face speech, language, and cultural access needs in their day to day life.
While most of us learn to speak as young children, for some speech is not so natural. Speech can be restricted due to paralysis, injury such as after a stroke, other neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy and damage to vocal cords due to injury or temporary injury such as laryngitis. Many people with no speech or speech impairments rely on communication devices to make themselves understood.
There is also a surge in the use of speech input technology. This technology helps people who have dyslexia, reduce physical dexterity and people who want to interact with technology on the move. These often struggle to understand people with thick accents.
New Zealand is a multi-cultural country with more than 150 different languages spoken at primary schools in Auckland. The cultural needs are often as diverse as language barriers. If we consider Mandarin is primarily written in a pictorial way, and Māori and other Pacific languages are primarily oral rather than written, it's no wonder there are many access issues.
The use of unfamiliar navigation and interaction can also place barriers for people with English as a second language. To facilitate access it is important to ensure that content and navigation are simple, consistent and clear.
Learn the impact of speech, language and cultural access needs on technology use
Assistive technology for accessing the Internet and apps
Some design and development considerations for speech, language and cultural needs
You can drop into this event at any time.