Auslan Assist: Co-designing Auslan announcements for railway travel

Train travel is made inaccessible to Deaf people by a lack of accessible, visual information. Deaf people who do travel on trains have strategies they employ to make their journeys smoother, including planning ahead with the TripView app, and remaining vigilant during their journeys. In non-standard situations in which audio announcements are not accompanied by visual information, they will experience frustration, irritation and confusion, and may end up lost, or far from their intended destinations. Our participants expressed a desire for more visual information throughout their train travel experiences. Multi-channel information, including both Auslan and written English, was preferred wherever possible, to maximise accessibility for the largest number of people. In locations with limited screen real estate, such as train carriages, written English information is also appropriate. Our participants provided detailed feedback on requirements for Auslan announcements and avatars for Auslan announcements, allowing us to develop a draft design for avatar-based Auslan announcements.