Mobile video comparison to help Deaf people make informed choices: a South African case study with provincial data

Abstract

Deaf people use sign language to communicate and use mobile video calling to communicate with one another. Mobile video utilises much more bandwidth than text and voice communication modes, resulting in higher expenditure for communication by Deaf signers. We surveyed multiple Deaf communities to explore their level of mobile phone usage as a mode of communication. The findings indicated that despite high data cost video telephony is frequently utilized resulting in revenue generation for mobile service providers at the expense of poor Deaf end users. In South Africa, unlike for text and voice calls, both users of a video communication pay for upstream and downstream data. This paper presents a test bed comparison of the data usage and cost of the three mobile video applications with the four South African mobile network operators used by the Deaf communities. The results indicate which applications perform best on which networks and at what cost. The results can help anyone working with Deaf end users to help them make informed decisions about the use, and cost, of mobile video in South Africa.