As seen in the Twitter exchange, the question gained community attention earlier this week, after Liane shared a response from the BlizzCon team stating that no form of live captioning would be provided, despite previous information on the event website suggesting it would be.
Undaunted is World of Warcraft's largest deaf guild, and has frequently acted as an ambassador for players with disabilities, both within the United States and without. In keeping with this, Liane correctly points out that not all deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals are versed in American Sign Language, particularly those from Europe. With that in mind, solutions like CART (Communication Access Real-time Translation) captioning is preferred and was previously available during BlizzCon 2023, though the initial response indicated that it would not be returning.
Example of CART-style captioning, in which a trained professional provides real-time speech-to-text translation.
While this update is framed as a correction to the initial response, fans who are hard of hearing or just have a hard time keeping up with the spoken word can rest assured that assistance will be provided. It's not clear exactly how many panels and exhibitions will benefit, as the website originally stated that the service would only appear on the Main and Legends stages, though this should still be a welcome addition to BlizzCon's biggest announcements.
