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Re: Accessible Speech Rate?

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From: Karen Mardahl
Date: May 12, 2016 8:17AM

Hi Marc,

From anecdotal experience, you should also talk with people who have
hearing loss.

I learned that even a very articulate speaker is bad news for a person
with, say, 30% hearing loss, if they are a rapid-fire speaker. The listener
with hearing loss has a hard time distinguishing the individual words and
the words become garbled. I attended such a presentation once and I
commented on how the speaker's voice carried nicely throughout the room and
how articulate she was. A friend with hearing loss said she had to work
hard to comprehend what was being said because the speaking delivery was
too fast for her to decipher properly. When you work hard just to grasp
what is being said, your cognitive experience decreases.

I have never heard of research on this, but anecdotally, I know it is an
issue. I think this is an angle worth investigating to find out whether
there is some research somewhere.

Regards, Karen Mardahl

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 3:04 PM, Thorson, Marc < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Thanks for the advice. I'm not referring to a screen reader's speech rate,
> though. I'm only referring to an individual talking during a presentation
> for a very broad audience — anyone using the web. I'm wondering if there
> actually are standards or guidelines defined for an accessible rate of
> speech. For example, what is considered too fast for those with cognitive
> impairments?
>
> Marc
>
>