Benefit factors: American students, international students, and deaf/hard of hearing students’ willingness to pay for captioned online courses

To recognize captioning benefits as a part of Universal Design, the study proposed to identify captioning benefits of American students who are native speakers, American students who are English as second language learners, International students, and deaf and hard of hearing students from two California universities. This study used the contingent valuation method, specifically, willingness to pay for survey design. Imagining if a university offers a captioned online course, the four groups were asked what factors they would be willing to pay for captioned online courses. American students and International students would be willing to pay for a variety of reasons, such as academic achievement, environmental convenience, and accessibility. Captioning benefits were not limited to deaf and hard of hearing students for accommodations, but also to American students and International students. The results could be a possibility of expanding future captioned online courses at universities as part of a Universal Design curriculum.