WFD President Dr Joseph Murray delivered a presentation at the DeafTech in Austria, where discussions focused on ways technology can be developed for and by deaf people.
Dr. Murray noted that participants were not waiting for high-concept solutions. They were asking how their organisations’ services could be delivered in more deaf-centred ways, and how technology could actively support deaf life rather than simply remove access barriers. The appetite across the conference was clear: tools built with deaf communities, not aimed at them.
The Vienna conference reinforced a core principle that WFD carries into all its technology policy work. Technology developed for deaf communities must start from the lived experience of those communities — navigating real institutions, real workplaces, and real communication environments every day. WFD’s ongoing work, including the development of its formal AI position through the Ad Hoc AI Working Group, is grounded in exactly that principle.
