Redesigning Educational Videos for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Learners

Educational videos are widely used, but accessibility guidelines beyond captions for d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) learners remain limited. Mayer’s multimedia learning theory assumes visual-auditory dual-channel processing, yet DHH learners with limited access to the auditory channel have distinct visual abilities and cognitive demands. This paper introduces motion-driven design ideas to support cognitive processing and improve video-based learning for DHH learners. Through a three-phase study, we identified four key challenges—such as misaligned content and visual overload—and proposed four design ideas that extend multimedia learning theory. We then evaluated these ideas with 16 DHH learners and 6 experts in Deaf education. The results show that motion-driven approaches reduce misalignment, ease visual attention switching, and improve the integration of visual and textual information across video types. For example, guiding visual attention switching minimizes confusion in complex visual contexts, such as programming demonstrations, while using relevant visuals enriches talking-head videos with graphics to clarify abstract ideas in captions. More research is needed to develop these promising ideas into well-defined principles.