Name of the Asset | Hearing Who Doesn't Hear: Exploring Digital Interventions with Deaf People in Bangladesh from the Perspectives of Sustainability Pillars
Type of Asset | Research
Date | January 2026
DOI | 10.69814/wp/2025103
SUMMARY
This study examines how digital interventions designed with deaf people in Bangladesh can address the three pillars of sustainability, social, economic and environmental, using the double-diamond co-design method. In the ‘discover’ and ‘define’ phases, we ran ten workshops across five districts (125 participants: 109 deaf people, 16 caregivers) and conducted ten stakeholder interviews. Thematic analysis revealed that social-service needs, especially health (including mental health) and education, dominate deaf participants’ priorities, while environmental considerations were less prominent. Key cross-cutting issues include stark digital inequities (varying device access and literacy), a severe shortage of accredited sign-language interpreters, platform and affordability barriers, and negative societal attitudes that constrain uptake. Based on these insights we identify five design problems that will guide the next ‘develop’ and ‘deliver’ phases: (1) negligible digital health services for deaf people; (2) intra-group digital inequity; (3) unsustainable reliance on scarce interpreters; (4) unequal affordability and accessibility of platforms; and (5) limited societal empathy among key service providers. We propose prioritising co-development of low-cost, shareable digital mental-health interventions for digitally literate deaf youth while engaging government, NGOs and industry to enable inclusive scale-up.
AUTHORS | Khalid Hossain, Jahirul Islam, Tasdik Hasan
COUNTRY AND/OR REGION | Bangladesh
NAME OF THE PROGRAMME | Global Development Conference 2025: Call for Papers
