Deafness and Hard of Hearing

Abstract

Hearing loss is extremely common. It’s estimated that around 20% of the world’s population – 1.5 billion people – are affected by hearing loss in at least one ear. More than 5% of the world’s population – 430 million people – are hearing-impaired, and more than 70 million people are deaf.¹ It’s thought that by 2050, over 700 million people (1 in 10) around the world will be affected by disabling hearing loss.² With deafness being such a common disability and set to become even more prominent, we need to ensure that more attention is given to the barriers that these people could face online.