Archive for the 'Technology' Category
The world has gone mobile, but without parallel technological developments for the hearing impaired, deaf consumers are in danger of falling behind. Phones have caused a longtime problem in terms of providing an adequate communication medium in the deaf community. Cell phones have offered improvements by leaps and bounds over land lines, helping to expand the options available for the hearing impaired to contact the outside world. However, while applications such as text messaging provide practical function, the cell phone experience has still been far from optimized for deaf users.The prospect of video chatting via cell phone finally offers the chance for those with hearing loss to use cell phones in the same way as the rest of the world, by allowing for instant person to person communication, as opposed to the response delay and out of context issues so often found when texting. Still, the limited bandwidth poses clarity issues in video chat sessions, with an uninterrupted, streaming feed necessary in order for sign language to be properly interpreted back and forth. Not to mention, small screens and limited picture quality make the process difficult.With this in mind, the University of Washington is currently developing a program dubbed MobileASL (Mobile American Sign Language). Read the rest of this entry »
Technology | 21.01.2011 0:00 | Comments Off
Though at first it might seem like an oxymoron, deaf radio may indeed be entering cars for the first time, finally giving deaf and hearing impaired individuals the similarly entertaining commute millions of auto-travelers take for granted every morning and rush hour. Though television has been available to those hard of hearing for some time, the radio medium has been largely off limits as a result of the almost entirely auditory nature of the broadcasts. Just like television offers optional caption viewing, this new development may allow for an auxiliary radio screens to display text that corresponds with radio play. The technology will feature a GPS screen for the driver, while scrolling radio text for the passenger. Read the rest of this entry »
Technology | 17.11.2010 11:46 | Comments Off
Though early November is typically a time of political turnover, developments within the past month have no doubt put a smile on the faces of individuals in not only the deaf community but the blind community as well. Regardless of how one feels about Obama’s politics, the 44th President certainly took strides to reach out to millions of Americans who have suffered from hearing and or vision loss by signing into law new legislation that ensures equal technological opportunity, regardless of physical limitations. Read the rest of this entry »
News, Technology | 9.11.2010 16:20 | Comments Off