Imagine this futuristic scenario that may come sooner than later within our lifetime. Forget stem cells or gene therapy and consider the use of technology as the ultimate the answer to every deaf and hard of hearing person's communication needs. One hundred percent accessible to language and communication for every deaf or hard of hearing person. A technology so advanced, its own processor power, artificial intelligence built into a micro-computer smaller than the smallest hearing aid. It has the computational ability to pick up sound, voices, speech patterns, advanced speech recognition algorithms, artificial intelligence, smart grammar software and such that it's able to process spoken words almost instantly in the form of captioned words that would seemingly float before your eye in specially designed eyewear (or perhaps contact lens). No more would you guess what a person might be saying and instead understand 100% of what was spoken to you in a conversation. The ability converse in either a noisy or quiet environment would be easy as apple pie. Let's say this technology come into existence 50 to 75 years from now. That's 2 or 3 generations away.
If available today would you love to have this piece of non-invasive, highly intelligent piece of technology and software? And become easily part of the hearing world at your own time and choosing? Would you love to have this piece of this technology?
Who wouldn't?
Now, imagine this technology does become available and it'd be relatively inexpensive to own. Wouldn't that be fantastic?
Ok. Let's go a step further. That means just about every deaf and hard of hearing person from little children to adults could have this piece of technology just as easily as wearing a hearing aid or eye glasses. It would become so easy for users become an integral part of the hearing world indistinguishable from anything else. A technology so advanced that it would allow 100 percent access to communication and language in the written form without the need for interpreters. Would this piece of technology eventually make obsolete the concept of a deaf/hh community? What about the Deaf community? Would this advanced technology actually create a disincentive on the need to learn sign language when a deaf or hh can easily help with the communication in a hearing world? How would this technology impact on the socialization of deaf and hard of hearing people? What about the size of the Deaf community? Would it go down because of this technology?
Just food for thoughts, folks.
Oh, by the way, people are working on such an idea for several years now. Like here, here, and this video example this year that shows exactly where we are going with eyewear video and speech recognition ability. It's only a matter of time until we get to the point of total indepence with the full and complete ability to interact with the hearing world in person at anytime and any place.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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14 comments:
Can't come soon enough for me Mike... I think sign has already lost the technology battle personally, certainly in medias, captions have already taken over. The older deaf community will not change its ways. The access we use now (Text) has virtually zeroed sign online really, the access you talk of (On the street), has yet to come, that is why the progress is slow. New technology there will put deaf culture right on the line.
Oh, you bet! Non-invasive, optional, immediately useful and versatile would do it. If it can also provide speech feedback, environmental sound sensitivity and even recording capability, go for it. And it would be eagerly adopted at all levels of hearing, not just the profoundly deaf.
However, how would it succeed in overcoming hearing attitudes about deafness? That's an exercise for thought.
I'd like this kind of technology. I am not sure of how the Deaf culture would accept this though... since some people appear to believe that being deaf is a birth right.
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but please pay attention…
You stated, “One hundred percent accessible to language and communication for every deaf or hard of hearing person.”
A lofty goal, and one which every reader of the Deaf Blogs would heartily endorse, I’m sure. But before your grandiose thinking becomes too all-consuming, perhaps we should all consider the largest obstacle to information access to ALL deaf people – the educational system for Deaf children. It doesn’t matter a bit that technology may someday be available to caption even the birds chirping outside my window, if people can’t READ well enough to understand what is going on.
Please don’t view this posting as being in any way critical of your exuberance… All I wish to point out is that more than half (WAY more than half) of the Deaf people in this country (and internationally) cannot read beyond the Fourth Grade and by definition, that means they are “Functionally Illiterate.” What difference does it make if everything is captioned? For many Deaf people today, the captioning might as well be in Swahili or Arabic…
We MUST focus on the education of children (and adults) with the emphasis on developing SURVIVAL SKILLS, to exist and advance in an information-based society.
I also said from small children to adults.
When it comes to technology and how it could be incorporated into even little children who can read we won't know exactly how (if it ever comes to that) it would impact younger people with hearing loss.
Nothing about exerburance here but an exercise in thought here of the possibilities.
Secondly, I stated 50 to 75 years from now. Who knows what the educational system would be like. Not even YOU would know but I'm sure it's an educational system that would become increasingly accessible and there would be probably less of a need for Deaf schools and greater emphasis on mainstreaming kids but that, too, would be a great unknown on how that would work out.
Again with technology, what about the advances of bionics with cochlear implant? How small would it get that anybody with one you couldn't tell if one was wearing one. These sorts of things. Technology will continue to get smaller and more efficient over time. It has always been the case.
You are getting a bit overly personal here about the "educational" aspect of it. Kids are able to read at a young age. Who knows that there could be specialized programming that helps with the reading development of young kids with this type of technology? Who knows. The point of this is an exercise in thought. And it could really impact the size of the Deaf community of the future.
Mike...
I think the greater emphasis on mainstreaming is inevitable, as much as I personally despise the outcomes of that “politically correct” philosophy and the way it has been implemented across this country. The damage that inappropriate mainstreaming has done to Deaf people is immeasurable; for every “success story” there are probably a dozen failures of children who have “slipped through the cracks.” I just read a fabulous blog from a young lady who is obviously a mainstreaming success, but who defines the isolation and helplessness that occurs in an educational environment as it REALLY happens – not as the educational planners and administrators delude themselves into believing is going on.
Please don’t misinterpret my comments as any kind of personal attack on you – I LOVE your futuristic thinking and the idea that deaf and hard of hearing people may someday enjoy something closely approximating “Full Inclusion,” whether that’s next week or 50 years from now.
The sad reality that we hate to acknowledge is that, for now, captioning is NOT the solution to everyone’s needs. Perhaps someday there will be mobile ASL devices (i.e. – a much improved Apple I-Phone) utilizing Video Remote Interpreting. That possibility exists right now, but we are still a long ways from the reality, since it would require the services of hundreds of thousands more trained interpreters – and who will pay the bill for THAT service???
Please don’t overlook the needs of those Deaf people (children and adults) who are unable to benefit from the existing educational system, and whose reading skills are severely limited. They are usually much more fluent in their native language ASL, and accommodation solutions need to look at the feasibility of actually accommodating these vital members of our society.
Of course it is entirely possible technology will NOT be required. Maybe genetics will root out near all deafness... you need to understand deafness is being addressed at DNA level now as well.... The fear about us all ending up Borgs may simply not happen. They will all be born hearing, or have available genetic treatment to restore it.
Just taking a leap of imagination...what if Deaf children were raised with this device from the beginning? No matter if he is implanted or not, he would have visual language right there from infancy. Would this result in a super-literate generation of Deaf children?
Or supposing literacy is not a talent this particular child was born with, could he still grow up with a superior vocabulary nevertheless? Would lipreading be tremendously enhanced by the support of the printed word alongside?
It'll take a whole new generation to prove the value of this device...meanwhile we old-fashioned Deaf with our fourth grade reading levels will still be grateful for the extra help of this gadget, even if we don't understand all of the input.
Just taking a leap of imagination...what if Deaf children were raised with this device from the beginning? No matter if he is implanted or not, he would have visual language right there from infancy. Would this result in a super-literate generation of Deaf children?
Or supposing literacy is not a talent this particular child was born with, could he still grow up with a superior vocabulary nevertheless? Would lipreading be tremendously enhanced by the support of the printed word alongside?
It'll take a whole new generation to prove the value of this device...meanwhile we old-fashioned Deaf with our fourth grade reading levels will still be grateful for the extra help of this gadget, even if we don't understand all of the input.
here's a solution for those that may not have good reading skills, picture holographic interpreters popping out of their pagers which also include ASL recognition software that reads ASL based on electronic perception just the same way that voice recognition software works for hearing people. ;)
Valhallian,
I would certainly expect that in a technology 50 to 75 years from now, no?
Yet even with this new technology it could be used in conjunction, successfully with kids growing up as oralists. After all, English (today that is) is the number one language used.
mcconnell
McConnell,
Why only one language? They're KIDS! Their brains can still easily learn languages, in whatever mode(s) they can perceive well enough.
The important thing is to get LANGUAGE(S) into them young, and they will be able to learn how to read that language later on.
"Most countries are multilingual. In the world’s roughly two hundred countries, some six thousand languages are spoken. There are more multilingual people than monolingual people around the globe. Power, however, lies principally in the hands of the monolinguals. Multilingual people become so largely because they live in a country where their primary language is not the language of official discourse, and so they are obliged to learn a second language.
"The members of these language minorities are usually realistic about language and power; they recognize that their children need to know the majority language to get ahead. They generally favor an education for their children in their most fluent language, the language of their minority, but an education that will make the children bilingual."
Harlan Lane - The Mask of Benevolence pg 103
- Linda
Linda, I never said just one language.
"A technology so advanced that it would allow 100 percent access to communication and language in the written form without the need for interpreters."
The one thing it couldn't do would be music. But I think it would be cool to be able to understand most people when talking without the strain of constant lip reading.
However, I'm betting that fifty years from now deafness will be all but cured-- and viewed the way near-sightedness is today. You might need to wear a device but no big deal if the device restores hearing to "normal."
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