Deafness and Hard of Hearing

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.