You’re not getting it.
“You’re not getting it.”
Let’s backtrack. You responded to the comment “It is a quibble whether it reads the question or hears it from Trebek” by going into detail on the complexity of speech recognition. That’s interesting, and the point of “Watson” is, of course, more about showing off new technology than the game of Jeopardy.
It being a “quibble” whether Watson reads or hears the clues is, however, absolutely spot-on. That is, if you take the game seriously, as apparently you’re not interested in doing. There may be an advantage in both hearing and reading clues, but you can play perfectly adaquately with the sound off. A deaf person would have no problem playing, granting their speech could be recognized or accommodations were to be made for them answering with signs.