Spotify for the deaf and hard-of-hearing may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s quite the opposite. Not only are there ways to make audio streaming platforms more accessible for the hard-of-hearing, but deaf people can actually feel the vibrations of sounds in music in a similar way to how other people hear music.

聋哑人和听觉困难者的Spotify听上去很矛盾，但这恰恰相反。 不仅存在使听力障碍人士更容易访问音频流平台的方法，而且聋哑人实际上可以以类似于其他人听到音乐的方式来感受音乐中声音的振动。

Dr. Dean Shibata, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Washington, stated in regards to his research on the matter, “…the experience deaf people have when ‘feeling’ music is similar to the experience other people have when hearing music. The perception of the musical vibrations by the deaf is likely every bit as real as the equivalent sounds, since they are ultimately processed in the same part of the brain.”

华盛顿大学放射学助理教授Dean Shibata博士在他对此事的研究中说：“……聋人在“感觉”音乐时的体验类似于其他人在听音乐时的体验。 聋人对音乐振动的感知可能与等效声音一样真实，因为它们最终会在大脑的同一部分进行处理。”

You can read the full article by Walter Neary about his findings on the University of Washington News site here.

您可以在此处阅读华盛顿大学新闻网站上Walter Neary发表的有关他的发现的全文。

In researching deaf and hard-of-hearing people’s relationship with sound, my colleague who is an American Sign Language (ASL) student at the University of Virginia, Stephanie Morton, and I asked ourselves:

在研究聋哑人与声音的关系时，我的同事是弗吉尼亚大学斯蒂芬妮·莫顿分校的美国手语(ASL)学生，我问自己：

聋哑人和听力障碍的观众如何访问Spotify？ (How can Spotify be accessible for a deaf and hard-of-hearing audience?)

We identified four main areas of Spotify’s user experience that are barriers to those who are hard-of-hearing:

我们确定了Spotify用户体验的四个主要方面，这些领域阻碍了那些难以听的人：

1. Adjusting the equalizer requires scrolling deep into the settings.调整均衡器需要深入滚动到设置。
2. Lyrics are only available on select songs.歌词仅适用于部分歌曲。
3. Podcasts and news episodes do not have closed captions.播客和新闻节目没有隐藏式字幕。
4. Many personalized features on Spotify are not suited to a hard-of-hearing person.Spotify上的许多个性化功能都不适合听不懂的人。

In order to break down these barriers for the deaf and hard-of-hearing to enjoy Spotify like everyone else, we designed solutions:

为了打破聋人和听障人士无法像其他人一样享受Spotify的障碍，我们设计了以下解决方案：

轻松访问均衡器设置 (Easy Access to Equalizer Settings)

Instead of having to scroll through the settings to adjust the equalizer for audio, there would be an equalizer button on the top right corner to easily access the adjuster. As well as manual adjustments, we designed a hard-of-hearing button one can click to automatically optimize audio for the most vibrations. This way, deaf and hard-of-hearing users can easily and quickly optimize music to make it easier to feel.

无需滚动设置来调整音频的均衡器，而是在右上角有一个均衡器按钮，可轻松访问该调节器。 除了手动调整外，我们还设计了一个听觉很难的按钮，可以单击该按钮来自动优化音频，以使振动最大。 这样，聋哑人和听觉强的用户可以轻松快速地优化音乐，使其感觉更轻松。

For example, strong, deep sounds such as drums and bass guitar are the easiest for a hard-of-hearing individual to feel. You can read more about music for the deaf here.

例如，强力，深沉的声音(例如鼓和贝司吉他)对于那些很难听的人来说最容易感觉到。 您可以在这里有关聋人音乐的信息 。

视觉节拍 (Visual Beat)

These dancing, graphic equalizer levels serve as a visual aid to the adjusted music for vibration. The ability to see the beat and how the music is moving would allow hard-of-hearing users to strengthen their grasp of what the music sounds like in conjunction with how it feels.

这些跳舞的图形均衡器电平可为调整后的音乐振动提供视觉帮助。 看到节拍以及音乐如何移动的能力将使听障用户可以加强对音乐听起来和感觉的掌握。

弹出式歌词和字幕 (Pop-Up Lyrics & Captions)

Spotify currently only displays Genius lyrics for select songs. In order to optimize for hard-of-hearing users, we added a recognizable closed captions button next to the ‘like’ button that would toggle karaoke-style words to cover the album cover. This is especially important in the case of an audio-streaming platform, because there are no visible lips to potentially read.

Spotify当前仅显示精选歌曲的Genius歌词。 为了针对听障用户进行优化，我们在“喜欢”按钮旁边添加了一个可识别的隐藏式字幕按钮，该按钮可以切换卡拉OK风格的单词以覆盖专辑封面。 在音频流平台的情况下，这尤其重要，因为没有可见的嘴唇可供潜在阅读。

The button’s close proximity to an already commonly-used button and the lyrics popping up where other Spotify pop-ups already reside makes this design update easily adoptable by the user.

该按钮非常接近一个已经常用的按钮，并且在其他Spotify弹出窗口已经驻留的地方弹出了歌词，使用户可以轻松地采用这种设计更新。

Also, the karaoke-style of the lyrics and captions allow a hard-of-hearing user to follow along more accurately, and know the exact cadence of the lyrics in order to aid in perceiving the beat and possibly singing/humming along.

而且，歌词和字幕的卡拉OK风格使听觉较难的用户可以更准确地跟随，并知道歌词的确切节奏，以帮助感知节拍并可能伴随着唱歌/哼唱。

Words convey meaning, emotion, and more in music, news, and podcasts. The ability to read the accompanying words from audio is essential to fairly conveying the message to hard-of-hearing users.

单词传达了含义，情感以及音乐，新闻和播客中的更多内容。 从音频中读取伴随单词的能力对于将信息公平地传达给有听力障碍的用户至关重要。

专门的播放列表 (Specialized Playlists)

In addition to Spotify’s public, curated playlists, all users get an array of customized playlists, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar, which update every week with new tracks catered to the user’s tastes. Therefore, in order to partake in the complete Spotify experience, we developed two examples for curated playlists a hard-of-hearing user would see on their account.

除了Spotify的公开播放列表之外，所有用户还会获得一系列自定义播放列表，例如Discover Weekly和Release Radar，它们会每周更新以迎合用户口味的新曲目。 因此，为了享受完整的Spotify体验，我们为听众用户会在帐户中看到的精选播放列表开发了两个示例。

The first, “Deaf and HH Picks”, would be a weekly updated playlist of songs that are easiest to “hear” via vibrations and suited to the user’s taste. The second, “Transcripted News/Podcasts”, would be a public Spotify playlist full of the best news segments and podcasts to read along to.

第一个是“聋人和HH精选”，它是每周更新的歌曲播放列表，这些列表最容易通过振动“听到”并适合用户的口味。 第二个是“转录新闻/播客”，它将是一个公开的Spotify播放列表，其中包含了可供阅读的最佳新闻片段和播客。

Including hard-of-hearing users in Spotify’s audio curation features would make it easier for deaf and hard-of-hearing users to discover music, news, and podcasts to listen to and use the great features of the application just like any other user.

在Spotify的音频策展功能中包含听障用户，将使聋哑和听障用户更容易发现音乐，新闻和播客，以像其他任何用户一样收听和使用应用程序的强大功能。

希望获得充耳不闻的听觉包容性Spotify体验 (The Hopes for a Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Inclusive Spotify Experience)

In designing Spotify to be inclusive of the hard-of-hearing folks out there, audio streaming would be an entirely different experience, even for those who can hear. A deaf and hard-of-hearing inclusive Spotify platform communicates the experience in a way that appeals to the other senses besides the ear. It is inclusive of both people and sensations.

在将Spotify设计为包含听觉困难的人时，即使对于那些听得见的人，音频流也将是完全不同的体验。 充耳不闻且难以听取的Spotify平台以一种吸引人的方式来传达体验，除了耳朵以外。 它既包含人又包含感觉。

Additionally, deaf and hard-of-hearing Spotify users could then be included in discourse surrounding music, news segments, and podcasts that they otherwise would not have been able to experience in this way. This would add many more people’s perspectives to discussions surrounding such important pieces of culture.

此外，聋哑人和听觉较难的Spotify用户随后可以包含在围绕音乐，新闻片段和播客的讨论中，否则他们将无法通过这种方式进行体验。 这将使更多人的观点参与围绕这种重要文化片段的讨论。