Accessibility
UX Research
Interaction Design
Designing accessible phone calls for 63 million deaf users
A calling companion that lets Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals make and receive phone calls independently without relying on a human interpreter.
Role
Research and Design
Platform
Android
Category
Academia
Year
2025
Why it mattered?
Hard-of-hearing users can't take part in a standard voice phone call. That cuts them off from delivery agents, customer support lines, and even calls from family and friends, every one of those interactions currently depends on either an interpreter or someone else picking up on their behalf.
Research reviewed for this project found that access depending on another person creates a real loss of agency for HoH individuals, and that this group is rarely treated as a direct stakeholder in service design, even though captioning and inclusive design measurably reduce stress (one cited survey found 70%+ of respondents felt more included when captioning was available).
63M+
Deaf individuals in India (2nd most common disability nationally)
430M+
Deaf individuals globally as per the most recent WHO census
2.5B
Projected globally affected by hearing loss by 2050
~17%
Of people who need hearing aids actually use them
THE Design process
How was the problem identified?
Rather than starting from an assumption, the process was built to work backward from evidence. Data collection fed into interpretation across six lenses: behavioural, emotional, cognitive, cultural, social, and contextual. That interpretation ran through grounded theory instead of a straight line from data to conclusion, patterns found during mapping kept sending the research back to collect more data, refining the clusters each time the loop repeated.
Research surfaced three recurring clusters across the space. Reliance, where performing a task required another person; Inclusion, where being present did not mean participating; and Awareness, where the world communicates through sound with almost no visual backup.
THE CONTEXT
Research and Method
Secondary research was the primary medium of data collection given the constraint of availability of real participants, with 7 case-study videos, 5 academic papers, 1 documentary (Deaf President Now), and the WHO's 272-page World Hearing Report as the source.
Note
This was desk research, not primary interviews with Deaf participants.
THE CONTEXT
Findings
Everyday task difficulty broke down as: 24.8% transportation, 24.3% activities outside the home, 22.5% things around the home, 16% managing health, 7.2% shopping/finances, 5% basic daily activities
Current adaptation methods: 36.3% rely on their own workarounds, 27.3% get help from family/outsiders, 26.7% use existing devices or tools
Only ~17% of people needing hearing aids use them; sign language users tend to think in visual blocks rather than linear text; people switch between communication modalities depending on context
In their own words…
Drawn from an interview study of 60 Deaf adults, describing the same exclusion this project set out to solve.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself.
Shende, Shraddha & Koon, Lyndsie & Singleton, Jenny & Rogers, Wendy. (2025). Everyday Challenges and Solutions for Individuals Aging With Deafness. Innovation in Aging. 9. 10.1093/geroni/igaf071.
THE CONTEXT
Primary artifacts
Content analysis (Excel)
The 37 tasks from the base research were logged and coded on frequency, assistance-required, and tech-availability, producing the task-difficulty percentages.
Affinity mapping
Those coded findings were clustered into themes across the six lenses (behavioural, contextual, emotional, cognitive, cultural, social).
Pain vs. frequency matrix
The clustered themes were then plotted on this 2×2 to surface the highest-priority opportunity: calling.
The Outcome
What I set out to do?
These six use cases came straight out of the research, each one maps to a real point of friction found in the pain vs. frequency analysis. Some are visible the moment you open the app; others only show up mid-call, when it matters most.
No. 1
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
No. 2
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
No. 3
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
No. 4
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
No. 5
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
No. 6
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
THE CONTEXT
How it works?
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
THE CONTEXT
Why it mattered?
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
First time users are prompted to add a card for faster repeat payments.
First time users are prompted to add a card for faster repeat payments.
First time users are prompted to add a card for faster repeat payments.
The Outcome
Why it mattered?
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
12%
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
12%
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
12%
Research and Design
The redesigned checkout was first rolled out across 100 societies before a wider launch.
Reflections & Learnings (My 2 cents)
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
I’m Shreyansh, a UX Designer who has worked inside startups, built one myself, and collaborated across product, engineering, and business teams to ship real products.
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