Streaming Accessibility Statistics [2026]

Roughly 466 million people globally have disabling hearing loss, and 1.5 billion experience some form of hearing difficulty. Despite this, only 12% of live streams offer captions. Adding captions makes streams accessible to a 15% segment currently excluded — a massive accessibility gap and untapped audience.

Streaming Accessibility Statistics (2026)

MetricValue
Global population with hearing loss1.5B
Disabling hearing loss466M
Twitch streams with captions~12%
Deaf/HoH viewers who want captions98%
Hearing viewers who prefer captions50%+

The Accessibility Gap

Only 1 in 8 Twitch streams is accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. This is both an accessibility failing and a growth opportunity — captioned streams reach 15%+ more viewers instantly.

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