Updated: Last Spring while conducting research for a paper for my MBA program, I came across the World Health Organization’s (WHO) web site, where a web page listed that there is an estimated 278 million deaf / hoh people around the world - thus I have updated the tag line of my blog to reflect the latest estimates. This is a 178 million increase from the previous estimate of 100 million worldwide that was mentioned else where.
Yet, for a large number of them, they reside in low-to middle income population zones, where access to technology goods such as computers and the Internet may be extremely limited.
WHO estimates that the number of deaf/hoh consumers is expected to increase due to increasingly aging population segments - everyone naturally loses their hearing as they age, regardless of ethnicity. The bottom line is that companies should pay attention, and produce products and services for this growing population segment.
The WHO page outlining the latest count of deaf / hoh people in the world can be viewed at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/
Posts
