A Content Analysis of Online Communities for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

In this paper, we present the results of a content analysis of online communities for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people. Twelve publicly accessible Facebook communities were examined operating in German. We analyzed the content published within a six-week period with the instrument, comprising relational, substantive and technical aspects of communities. The relational aspect covered the organization of communities, the substantive aspect covered communication between community members and and the technical aspect pertained to accessibility indicators. Results revealed three main findings. Firstly, analyzed communities are mostly established and led by institutions, organizations or associations. On average, communities have 1,385 members and their aim is to support d/Deaf people in personal, educational and professional domains. Secondly, both sign and written language are used in communities, and communication between the administrator and members most frequently takes place. Thirdly, the feature of posting videos is available in most of the communities analyzed to an administrator only, while the feature of posting comments by videos is not technically available at all. Our findings may aid in understanding that Facebook communities for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people mainly support activities of communities in the offline world where the influence of institutions which initiated online communities is still evident.