Jod: Examining Design and Implementation of a Videoconferencing Platform for Mixed Hearing Groups.

Videoconferencing usage has surged in recent years, but current platforms present significant accessibility barriers for the 430 million d/Deaf or hard of hearing people worldwide. Informed by prior work examining accessibility barriers in current videoconferencing platforms, we designed and developed Jod, a videoconferencing platform to facilitate communication in mixed hearing groups. Key features include support for customizing visual layouts and a notification system to request attention and influence behavior. Using Jod, we conducted six mixed hearing group sessions with 34 participants, including 18 d/Deaf or hard of hearing participants, 10 hearing participants, and 6 sign language interpreters. We found participants engaged in visual layout rearrangements based on their hearing ability and dynamically adapted to the changing group communication context, and that notifications were useful but raised a need for designs to cause fewer interruptions. We provide insights for future videoconferencing designs and conclude with recommendations for conducting mixed hearing studies.