No Communication Barrier

How is that possible? How is it possible to have 100% no communication barrier between a deaf guy and hearing people and be able to communicate in real time just like signing or talking using voice? How is it possible to have 100% communication without signing or talking? Without writing using pen and paper? Without an interpreter 24/7 following you like an unwanted 3rd shadow? Take a look at this picture and figure out how it is possible and you tell me. How can a deaf guy translate his hiking experiences and other stories as a deaf person to a bunch of hearing person using this piece of amazing communication technology?

If you want to follow Julio on his hiking quest on the Appalachian Trail click on the picture icon on the left column of this blog.

If you want to know more about the UbiDuo communication technology visit sComm, owned and operated by a deaf CEO and co-founder.

The solution...

Have a hearing loss? Deaf? Hard of hearing? Don't know sign? Have a hard time mingling with hearing people? Watch this video and figure out how another way of doing face to face communication can be done.



The answer is simple. Even Noah Buchholz knows the answer. But the bigger question is how willing will deaf or hearing people take the time to sit down and have a genuine face to face conversation? Or will people continue to reject others simply because they cannot hear well or do not know sign?

Learn to let go of the status quo.

Multiple disabilities in a down economy

If you think just being deaf and trying to find work in a down economy imagine for deaf individuals with multiple disabilities like Marty Wheeler of Kalispell, Montana. In addition to him being deaf he was born with cerebral palsy where he must use a cane to help him walk and if you think that's bad his glaucoma is severe enough to have him classified as legally blind. But the one thing I think sets him apart from others is his drive and determination to be independent as possible.

“I’m good with details,” Wheeler said. “I’ve got a good eye for it.”

Doney said he has the additional challenge of reading the handwriting and drawings of many different appraisers, including some who no longer work at the Department of Revenue.

“It’s fun for me,” Wheeler said. “It’s a good challenge.”

Doney found her concerns about communication were unfounded since Wheeler possesses a high level of lip reading and UbiDuo skills. She said he seems to understand even before they finish speaking.

He also doesn’t get frustrated or bogged down in spite of the complexity of some of the work.

“Marty is probably the most patient person I’ve ever seen,” Doney said.

New technology such as email and social media have made a huge difference for Wheeler and other people with disabilities.

Roberts said that Facebook has helped Wheeler with office socializing. She said he and his co-workers can interact online and by email as well as in person.

“Through these things, he can create the interoffice relationships that hearing people take for granted,” Roberts said.

The biggest boon among people with hearing loss is the improvement in technology in both the communication and social aspect. Not only that but the increased level of independence with the help of technology whether it's the use of the internet, emails, face to face communication, video phone, CART, hearing aids, cochlear implants, relay operators and so on. Marty has a triple whammy to deal with but does so with ease.  He is keen on taking advantage of every possible technological innovations to help him communicate rather than rely on a sign language interpreter all the time. Proving his communication independence will only serve him better for his future.

How much would you pay for a proven piece of communication technology?

What would you say about a deaf worker who worked as a greeter at Sam's Club for 12 years without having any other responsibilities or promotion?

What would you say upon learning about this deaf worker who obtained a piece of communication technology that allowed him access to his hearing customers, co-workers, supervisors and boss? Not a big deal?

What would you say to the fact that he was promoted three times and now supervises 20 hearing people all because of that communication technology he used?

I'd say you would probably be dumbstruck seeing the drastic change in this deaf person's own career advancement by using a crucial piece of communication technology. He's now much more happier and confident in his new founded career path.

How much would you pay for that piece of communication technology that can easily provide you the opportunity to interact and communicate with hearing people where signing isn't involved?

How much would you pay for that piece of communication technology that will allow you the opportunity to succeed? And the opportunity to show your co-workers and boss your entrepreneurial and team-work spirit? And impress your customers and business clients as well?

How much would you be willing to pay for a proven piece of communication technology to advance your own career at your place of work? Would you use it if your company paid for it? Do you have the drive and determination to succeed in your place of work? Would you take advantage of this piece of communication technology knowing that it could help you with your career in a positive way?

Would you?

When technology allows 100% communication access to language anytime

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.

4G and the upcoming era of tiered pricing for data usage and how it could impact Deaf people

In my previous blog article on "Why some deaf people don't like using the video phone" I discussed how people's own preferences will determine how valuable a product or service is in the communication technology sector even when others deem it as worthless. It's like this wise saying,"One man's junk, another man's treasure." Which is why there is a huge ongoing growth of apps and services for smartphones in the age of rapidly improving telecommunication infrastructure that will increasingly handle faster and larger data loads such as video streaming as we ease into the 4G era that will easily surpass the 3G network system on speed and data load that most smartphones currently route through. Perhaps this "all you can eat buffet" will not last much longer and the amount of data used will determine the price you will have to pay, a tiered pricing data plan for smartphone users.

In other words, video streaming will eventually be limited in terms of how much people are willing to pay on the amount of video data you want. And we all know that video streaming or downloads can eat huge amount of megabytes of data every month. This could easily impact the wallets of Deaf people soon enough who recently got excited with the recent news of iPhone smartphone video capability (see video demo here) for its signing communication potential.

According to Nielsen Company a typical smartphone user consumes about 300MB of data a month which is more than doubled compared to last year's figure. And with the coming advent of video streaming of all types (Hulu, video relay, Mobisode, YouTube, Facetime, Fring, etc) with the effort to include captioning in all videos.

For Video Relay Service (VRS) for deaf people through Apple's iPhone Facetime it could add even more video streaming data to your bill until it reaches a cap, say, 2 gb. That cap could come quickly before the end of the month along with your watching captioned television shows ("mobisodes"), movies (e.g. Hulu, Netflix) and the recent on-demand captioning attempt of YouTube videos making it increasingly attractive for Deaf smartphone users to access streaming videos. But would VRS through smartphones eventually put Deaf people at a financial disadvantage because such a service could easily push over a download cap of 2 gb a month, for example, when combined with other video downloads? Although there is no doubt that Apple's Facetime through VRS there have obvious advantages for hearing, hard of hearing, deaf and Deaf people when it comes to communicating with other people.

"Having FaceTime on iPhone 4 is a huge thing in the deaf community, because its the very first time any deaf individual can make a phone call to another deaf individual on their phones," she wrote in an email. "Before, we only could communicate with each other using email, text or IM."

It's been a long desired hope to be able to use the phone and be able to communicate freely and fluidly like everybody else. Not only just the visual aspect of signing but soon through Real Time Texting (RTT) over the smartphone without the need to hit the "send" button everytime you want to respond whether it's voice, visual signing or RTT. That exactly what your phone should do for you - unencumbered, unimpeded, and without waiting.

People will soon have their own communication preferences in choosing between using voice, real time video for signing or speaking, or Real Time Texting (RTT) where UbiVia would satisfy the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 requirements on texting.

The "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009" (H.R. 3101) plans to modernize disability standards by making such accessibility features as closed captioning, video description and real-time texting a standard for Internet technologies.

Although the H.R. 3101 bill is good overall except for the fact that it'd be impossible for Assistive Technology (AT) companies to conform to the language requirement in the bill that all AT companies must include an "all in one" functionality with their devices. The language of the bill need to change and clarified as to not impose undue burden to AT companies on technology innovation.

Shapiro agreed on the value of a centralized database of all products and services for disabled Americans. He explained CEA’s concern that H.R. 3101, by requiring all Internet connected products and services be accessible by Americans with all disabilities, would freeze technology and deter innovation and entrepreneurs. Shapiro suggested several alternatives to the end goal of providing Americans access to information, education and entertainment. “The legislation before us – H.R. 3101 – is extremely broad in its scope; chilling innovation and the entry of new products. More, it ignores the increasing number of products on the market which serve the needs of many in the disability community.”

Shapiro noted that the current legislation does not take into account the ever changing dynamic of Internet-based services and devices. “We are no longer living in a world of single function devices…The legislation’s attempt to adapt old regulations established to apply to primary function services and devices …to new multi-function devices will not produce the desired result, and will only impede the advancement of new technologies and accessible features.”

Rather we should allow technology be the innovator and creator of voluntary standards much like what Research in Motion (maker of BlackBerry smartphones) has been doing by incorporating their philosophy on increasing accessibility for smartphone users. A philosophy and guideline on addressing people who are either deaf, hard of hearing, color blind, blind, speech impairment, motor impairment, visual impairment, or people with cognitive or learning disabilities. In this case, ignoring some 30 million people in the United States with hearing loss as potential smartphone users is not good marketing sense. But there seems to be an unseen caveat here with the increasing smartphone's video capability where Deaf people could unwittingly find themselves paying more than the average hearing person simply because of the VRS availability for smartphone users in the very near future. Have the telecommunication carriers even thought of this potential problem and avoid discriminating against those who require the use of VRS through smartphones when the days of "unlimited data" download comes to a screeching halt? Tiered pricing is coming. And a potential wallet buster for Deaf smartphone users.

Why some deaf people don't like using the video phone

There is a certain misconception or misperception when it comes to communication technology like the video phone, email, texting, voice using the phone and so on the preference of a particular piece of communication technology over another. For example, the video phone. Not everybody like to use the video phone. In fact, several deaf people I know avoid using the video phone as much as possible and use email to communicate instead. They would prefer to quickly write out an email letter on what's going on than to sit and chat, mindlessly (according to them), for hours. Some people are not chatters when it comes to using the video phone. Or would try and limit conversations on the video phone. For them, it's probably an issue on the amount of time consumed for social chit chat when time could be better spent elsewhere on getting things done. You'd be surprised.

And then we have the texting example. Not everybody like to text all the time and would either avoid it or keep it to a minimum and perhaps instead prefer voice over the phone. Or in the upcoming case of the new real time texting conversation technology without the need to hit the "send" button to respond everytime would be the new UbiVia communication technology. In this case it would be people who like to text all the time rather than those who use texting sparingly. It would probably come down between the preferred choice of texting using the "stop and go" texting (e.g. SMS, AIM, Instant Messaging, etc) versus UbiVia real time, live texting where people on each end can see each other's texting at the same time. This would be very similar between two people talking (voice) with each over the phone in a fluid fashion. People will undoubtedly choose one communication technology over another for a variety of reasons. The communication technology pie is very big out there and people are willing to pay for certain services or applications if they find them beneficial or useful to have.

No matter what people say there will always be preferences on using certain type of communication technology over others. It doesn't matter if one group of people who will be negative about a communication technology because there will always be another group who would praise it for its beneficial uses.

Let's look at the UbiDuo communication device. It is a communication technology mocked by many Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing people saying it wouldn't work or that it wouldn't be as successful in selling the product for a variety of reasons. Yet they were wrong on all counts and the company, sComm, that makes the UbiDuo communication device, continues to grow and sell successfully this quality product each year.

Another thing to look at is the iPhone video calling. Eventually this will become mainstream in many phones into the near future. Just because you have this communication technology feature built in doesn't mean everybody will prefer this feature over other types such as "stop and go" versus real time, live texting, emailing, video phone through your television screen (bigger screen), voice only and so on. Some will prefer to using the old pen and paper method and avoid technology altogether.

Choices and preferences are two very different things here. Preferences vary over the hundred of millions of people in the United States when it come to choosing a particular piece of communciation technology for everyday use. Just because you don't like a particular use of communication technology doesn't mean others will share your same sentiment and will instead see value and beneficial use.

Part II Mike's ASL Vlog to the Deaf Community

Yesterday I produced my first vlog, a video message to the Deaf community in ASL. It was also my first vlog for DVTV as well. Not a particular clean first vlog but at least I've gotten my first video message out to the Deaf community which is a start. Below is my 2nd part of my vlog. It's a better video and it's more prepared without the pauses. Below the video is a loose transcript of what I followed with some deviation but it captures mostly what I said.



Transcript:

This is part 2 of my vlog.

I didn't have time to finish up my thoughts. My first video. Need to stop fiddling with my face! Oh well.

Ok.

In my 2nd vlog I wanted to talk about technology.

I believe it is becoming a great communication equalizer for deaf and hard of hearing. And it's amazing how far we have come.

Remember technology was like 20 years ago? No internet! No cell phones. No smart phones that are connected to the internet. No video phone. NO internet like today. We had some email and discussion forums but that was about it.

NOw, what will communication technology be like 20 years from now? 3d real time communication in ASL? What about cell phones or smart phones that are connected to the internet? What will they be like 5, 10 or 20 years from now? Technology is moving so fast. On YouTube it now has automatic captioning. Although not perfect but it is a step in the right direction. Who would've thought two years ago that YouTube would come up with automatic captioning?

Yes. Technology is moving fast. I'm sure with videos we see on DVTV will soon become crystal clear and not so grainy. It's just a matter of time. What do you think of communication technology today? Has it helped your job? Your life? Anything? could you live without your today? Remember, you didn't have one 10 years ago and you lived fine without it! And, now, today, can't live without it. Strange how technology has helped us realize the importance of it for communication purposes.

What do you think?

So long.