Deafness, Captions & Accessibility with Meryl Evans

Deafness, Captions & Accessibility: Progress Over Perfection with Meryl Evans What does accessibility look like when you have depended on it your entire life? This week on Pushing Forward with Alycia, Alycia Anderson welcomes respected accessibility advocate, speaker, content creator, consultant and CPACC-certified professional Meryl K. Evans for a candid conversation about deafness, captions, communication, advocacy and why lived experience matters when we design more accessible experiences. Born profoundly deaf, Meryl grew up lip-reading, using hearing aids and learning how to navigate a hearing world long before today's accessibility technology existed. She remembers hunting through the TV Guide for the tiny closed-captioning symbol and the moment captions finally gave her access to the conversations everyone else was already having. Today, Meryl helps organizations better understand accessibility through training, workshops, accessible content, user experience testing and speaking. And she brings an important reminder to the work: accessibility does not require instant perfection. It requires a willingness to listen, learn and keep moving forward. Alycia and Meryl explore everything from growing up disabled and finding confidence through sports to the evolution of captioning, accessible social media, reading friction, disability language and the importance of hiring people with lived experience. Meryl also challenges a growing social media trend: captions designed primarily to entertain rather than communicate. As she explains, captions are information first. When words bounce, flash, change colors or appear one at a time, the very accessibility feature intended to provide access can instead become another barrier. The conversation closes with a message that applies far beyond accessibility: progress over perfection. We do not need to know everything before we begin. We need to remain curious, keep learning and continue making progress. And sometimes progress includes knowing when to rest. **As Meryl reminds us:** “There’s a difference between taking a break and quitting.” **In This Episode** 🐝 Growing Up Deaf Meryl shares what it was like being born profoundly deaf, learning to lip-read and recognizing at an early age that she communicated differently. 🏆 Sports, Confidence & Disability From softball to basketball, soccer, volleyball and half-marathons, Meryl reflects on how sports helped build confidence, competitiveness and resilience. 💬 The Evolution of Captions From searching TV Guide for captioned programming to today's built-in captioning tools, Meryl shares how dramatically access has changed during her lifetime. 📱 Captions Are Information, Not Entertainment Why animated, colorful or one-word-at-a-time captions may look engaging but create cognitive overload for people who rely on them. ♿ Lived Experience Matters If you want to know whether an accessibility feature truly works, include people who depend on that feature in the testing and design process. 👀 Reducing Reading Friction Small choices including alignment, capitalization, font size and formatting can dramatically change how easy content is to consume. 🗣️ Language & Disability Advocacy Alycia and Meryl discuss terminology, education and why people sometimes need the opportunity to learn rather than being expected to already know everything. 🌱 Progress Over Perfection Organizations are complex. Accessibility is ongoing. Sustainable inclusion happens when people continue learning and improving rather than waiting until everything is perfect. ❤️ Rest Is Not Quitting Meryl's Pushing Forward Moment reminds us to understand our energy, take care of ourselves and recognize the difference between taking a needed break and giving up. **Key Takeaways** - Accessibility often benefits far more people than the population it was originally designed to support. - Hearing aids do not create the same experience as hearing for every deaf or hard-of-hearing person. - Good captioning prioritizes comprehension and communication. - Accessibility testing should include people who actually depend on the accessibility feature being evaluated. - Small design choices can create significant cognitive and reading friction. - Disability language evolves, and education can be more productive than expecting perfection. - Large organizations may be making accessibility progress even when that progress has not reached every department. - Inclusion requires consistency, curiosity and continued learning. - Rest can be part of progress. - Accessibility is not about getting everything perfect today. It is about continuing to move forward. **Episode Chapters** 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:25 Meet Meryl Evans 01:52 Growing Up Deaf 03:39 Sports And Confidence 06:38 How Meryl Communicates 10:10 Captions Change Everything 13:28 Captions For Everyone 15:14 What Makes Captions Bad 18:12 Becoming An Advocate 21:38 Work With Companies Today 24:25 UX Testing And Reading Friction 26:38 Language Matters In Disability 27:45 Hope For The Future 29:33 Progress Over Perfection 31:31 Pushing Forward Moment 32:27 Final Thanks And Sign Off **The Pushing Forward Moment** “There’s a difference between taking a break and quitting.” Meryl reminds us that taking care of ourselves is part of doing meaningful work. Pay attention to your energy. Rest when you need to. Then keep going. **Connect with Meryl Evans** Continue learning from and connecting with Meryl K. Evans, CPACC, accessibility consultant, speaker, inclusion advocate and UX tester. Meryl works with organizations through accessibility consulting, speaking engagements, training, workshops and user experience testing. - Website:  https://meryl.net - LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/meryl/ - Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/merylke/ - YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/merylkevans - X / Twitter:  https://x.com/merylkevans - Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/merylnet **Connect with Alycia** 🌐 Website:⁠ ⁠⁠https://alyciaanderson.com/⁠⁠⁠ 🎙️ Podcast:⁠ ⁠⁠https://alyciaanderson.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyciaanderson/⁠⁠⁠ 📸 Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/alyciaanderson/⁠⁠⁠ **About Pushing Forward with Alycia** Pushing Forward with Alycia gives disability a voice through conversations about accessibility, inclusion, ambition, resilience, leadership, advocacy, and creating a more inclusive world for all people. 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