Talking with Texts: How Cellphones Empower Deaf Children in Uganda

A wonderful article on how SMS is being used to help deaf children in Uganda. By Ken Banks for National Geographic.

Kids text all the time – at school, on the bus, even when you’re trying to talk to them. It can be annoying. But imagine if a child couldn’t communicate at all – that’s when a mobile can become a lifeline. In some developing countries, children who are deaf don’t have access to special education, technology or even sign language teaching. ... Their disability is seen as a curse on the family. Others are locked up in back rooms to hide the family shame. Those that make it to a school setting are the lucky ones.

In this edition of “Mobile Message”, Cambridge to Africa’s Sacha DeVelle, explains how her organisation has been using mobile phones in specially designed education programmes to help deaf children in Uganda communicate. By getting everyone in their schools to help out, the projects also happen to be making them the coolest kids in school.

Read full article.

Mobile Lorm Glove - A communication device for deaf-blind people

The Mobile Lorm Glove from The Design Research Lab in Berlin is a communication and translation device for the deaf- blind. It translates the hand-touch alphabet Lorm, a common form of communication used by people with both hearing and vision impairment, into digital text and vice-versa.

The prototype enables the deaf-blind user to compose messages via the pressure sensitive palm of the glove that are transmitted as a text message to the receiver's handheld device. Vibrotactile feedback patterns allow the wearer to perceive incoming messages. It supports communication over distance, provides access to autonomous information and serves as an interpreter for people not familiar with Lorm.

via Laurent Haug

Congo election: Deaf say ban on texting threatens their lives

Deaf people in the Democratic Republic of Congo say a ban on texting threatens their lives because they no longer receive warnings of violence.

The government banned SMS messages more than a week ago to preserve "public order" following disputed elections.

There are an estimated 1.4 million deaf people in DR Congo, which is recovering from years of conflict.

Read full article.

LightOn Cradle Alerts Deaf Users of Incoming Calls or SMS

LightOn by Dreamzon immediately alerts Deaf users whenever a call or SMS is received thanks to a light based notification system cradle.

New service uses SMS to help those with speech difficulties communicate

160characters.org reports on Jaybee which aims to help those with a range of illnesses and disabilities to communicate widely via SMS.

Jaybee uses various ‘triggers’ such as hand movements, touch screen, head movements and even a simple blink of an eye, to transform predictive text phrases into very realistic British voices which add character to communication.

Designed initially for people with Motor Neurone Disease, JayBee allows users to say exactly what they want to say. It learns their communication patterns using technology initially used by TIL in the Space Industry.

Read full article.

Thimble wearable device converts text into braille

engadget on Thimble, a wearable device concept for the blind that translates every day ambient information into braille.

A thimble takes ambient input and relays it in via an electro-tactile grid to the wearer's finger in Braille. It gets text input from an embedded camera or pulls RSS feeds, books, or presumably any other text via a Bluetooth-paired smartphone.

Watch video demo.

How SMS bridges the deafness divide

A 2004 research paper, Everyone Here Speaks TXT: Deaf people Using SMS in Australia and the Rest of the World, by Mary and Des Power, predicted that SMS has a similar ability to improve communications between deaf communities, and wondered whether this would extend to relationships with hearing people. Dr Pieter Streicher, MD at BulkSMS explains that technology can help. Gadget Magazine reports.

Six years later headway has been made in some countries - with organisations such as the Child Africa International School in Uganda using SMS to teach deaf children alongside hearing children - but there is still some work to do in South Africa.

... It makes sense that so many deaf people have adopted SMS as a preferred communications channel around the world. It is text-based, easy to use, affordable and is mobile. The vibrating function of the handset alerts the user about a message. Unlike other technology designed specifically for Deaf people, such as teletypewriters (TTY), it does not require each party to have bespoke equipment or rely on an expensive, time-intensive and intrusive intermediary to translate messages back and forth.

Read full article.

For Deaf, Wireless Devices A New Portal To World

Quietly over the last decade, phones that make text messaging easy have changed life profoundly for millions of deaf people. CBS News reports.

For the first time, a generation of deaf people can communicate with the world on its terms, using cell phones.

Read full article.

Related links to articles on how SMS is helping people with hearing impairments.

Deaf children are being heard in Africa thanks to SMS

Cellphones in the classroom help break down barriers between the hearing and hearing impaired. The Vancouver Sun reports.

Julie Solberg began venturing up the peaks of Uganda's mountains focused on retrieving deaf orphans with the purpose of providing them with an education. The children had been abandoned and left homeless.

Solberg founded the Child Africa International School in Kabale, Uganda, in 2007 with the aim of integrating deaf children into a regular primary school. Cambridge to Africa, a United Kingdom group that works to advance education in Africa, is working with the school on a cellphone integration project that will make it easier for deaf children to learn alongside, and be taught by, the non-deaf. Ten per cent of the children enrolled at the school are hearing impaired.

SMS text messaging on cellphones has broken the sound barrier that blocked deaf children from communicating with their hearing peers. Deaf children are no longer ostracized from sign-language-illiterate pupils and teachers, and this has given them more confidence.

"Just the fact that they have been given a phone and are taught how to use it has really improved their self-esteem," said Sacha DeVelle, founder of Cambridge to Africa.

Read full article.

[Via kiwanja.net and FrontlineSMS]

A LoudPhone for the hearing impaired

According to MedIndia, ringtones as loud as a pneumatic drill or a speeding train are popular with the elderly and hearing impaired.

The Geemarc Clearsound CL8200 cell phone,which has a top volume of 1,000 decibels, has been designed for the millions of elderly people who are hearing impaired.

It is understood to be the loudest mobile phone on the market.

The phone, which has been manufactured by the British Company in Hertfordshire, has been on sale for a few months at specialist websites including the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, which says it has sold thousands.

Read full article.

New Zealand to launch 111 text calls for hearing impaired

Deaf people will be able to text 111 in an emergency from August. Stuff reports.

The text service will be tested and extended to the hearing impaired, and could eventually be available to everyone.

The system could also be used to track people's phones and send out mass "alert" texts to the public in an emergency.

Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand chief executive Rachel Noble says New Zealand's 79,000 deaf people could send a fax in an emergency but often relied on finding a neighbour or someone to call 111.

Related articles.

Motorola to work with The National Federation of the Blind

The National Federation of the Blind and Motorola Inc., announced Monday that they have entered into a cooperation agreement to promote technologies that improve the accessibility of cell phones to blind consumers.

Certain future Motorola cell phones will provide verbal readouts of information such as the time and date, battery level, signal strength, user's phone number, caller ID information for incoming calls, missed and received calls, and voice mail alerts.

Blind users will also be able to take advantage of verbal readouts and voice-command features for ring tone status, inputting and accessing contacts, and various other settings. Motorola expects these cell phones to be available in 2010. The parties have also agreed to work together to make additional phones and features accessible to blind users.

Read full press release.

Emergency text system goes live

Trials are underway of a UK service allowing people to contact emergency services by text message, reports the BBC.

The system is aimed at people who cannot make normal voice calls to the 999 service due to disability.

The service sends the text to a voice relay assistant who then speaks the text message to the emergency service and then texts back their reply.

If successful, the system would become permanent in early 2010.

AT&T offers cell phone training session for users with vision loss

Using a mobile phone with limited vision can be a daunting task. AT&T and the American Foundation for the Blind have announced that AT&T is holding its first national training sessions to help users with vision loss use wireless phones more effectivel. Phonemag reports.

The training sessions are a public service initiative and an offshoot of the popular AT&T training sessions for senior citizens. Participants in the program bring their own mobile phones and anyone can attend regardless of what carrier they use.

AT&T will offer demonstrations for those who don’t won a mobile phone as well. The session will reportedly cover phone basics like checking voice mail, storing numbers, controlling volume, and using software to magnify the screen and provides verbal instructions for users.

Enhanced SMS Allows Vision, Hearing Impaired To Text 911

Iowa's Black Hawk County, a public-safety group, is launching mobile phone texting technology that allows impaired individuals to contact a 911 dispatcher without specialized communications devices or relay centers. Information Week reports.

To establish the texting-to-911 connection, the various partners enhanced the Short Message Service to establish a text-conversation link directly between the caller and 911 dispatchers.

The Black Hawk County system is being installed and is expected to go live in early July.

Text lifeline to help deaf people

A national trial is being launched this autumn to help deaf people send text messages to contact the police, ambulance, fire rescue and coastguard. The BBC.

The new system will allow hard of hearing people to send a text to 999 to contact the emergency services.

If the trial is successful the service could be up and running in 2010.

For the estimated nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK the new service will transform the way they call for help in an emergency.

City of London Police Accepting SMS Requests for Help

The police force covering the UK's City of London has launched an SMS service, which will allow people in the City to use their mobile phones to contact the police in non-emergency situations. The SMS service is aimed mainly at people that have hearing or speech impediments but it is available to all City residents.

The new service will replace the existing typetalk and textphone services.

[via Cellular News]

Text messaging used for testimony of deaf witness

It was trial by instant messenger in Northampton County Court on Wednesday -- at least for the morning. The Morning Call reports.

With the prosecutors' main witness deaf and a sign interpreter unavailable, a jury was forced to endure typed questions and answers for testimony in a case of a man accused of assaulting an Easton woman, then breaking into her apartment a week later.

... Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta said the method of testimony was forced upon the court because the district attorney's office couldn't secure an interpreter for its witness in time. But he also left open the possibility that it could be challenged at the appellate level.

Deaf people lobby MPs over phones

Deaf campaigners fighting for equal access to the telephone are lobbying MPs at a reception in parliament. The BBC reports.

"Consortium group TAG said deaf people are being held back in their jobs and lives because phone technology is no longer easily available or affordable.

The deaf are able to communicate using phone systems which either turn speech into text and vice versa or use sign language interpreters via video link.

Another system called captioned telephony, which uses speech recognition technology to convert an operator’s voice into text, closed in December for funding reasons.

"Much better access has been shown to be within grasp, but most of the services that deliver it have folded because they are too expensive for deaf individuals."

TAG's reception for MPs is being held at Portcullis House under its campaign "Bringing Deaf Telecoms into the 21st Century".

The group represents all the main UK deaf organisations concerned with telecoms and broadcasting.

Nokia Intros Phone Device for the Hearing Impaired

Nokia has announced the release of a new cell-phone accessory designed for users with hearing aids: The Nokia Wireless Loopset works with T-coil equipped hearing aids or cochlear implants, and slips around the user's neck.

The Wireless Loopset is compatible with Bluetooth-ready handsets, essentially transforming the user's hearing aid into a headset. The device features adjustable sidetone levels, optimized volume range, single-button calling, and a vibrating alert.

[via Gearlog]

Making travelling easier for the disabled thanks to GPS cell phones

Nicolas Novo reports on Pasta&Vinegar, of an interesting project by Antoni Aba presented by the city of Geneva and Handicap Architecture Urbanisme (HAU) called GENEVE*accessible.

"The project intends to make traveling easier for the disabled by providing them disabled GPS-enabled mobile telephones so that they can take pictures of every obstacle they come across in Geneva.

By means of multimedia messages they create a map of the accessibility of the city on the internet.

The resulting work will be presented at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, within a series of related live events: the “Créateurs Singuliers” week (27th May-1rst June)."

Deaf call for better phone access

Deaf people are lobbying politicians in the UK for greater access to technology that helps them use the phone. The BBC reports.

"A mass lobby of MPs is being carried out using the same technology to which deaf people want improved access.

These systems use different means to turn sign language or text into speech to support a phone conversation.

"We want to keep pace with technology," said Ruth Myers, chair of the TAG consortium that is co-ordinating the day of protests."

Cell phone can read documents for blind

The next generation of computerized aids for the blind and visually impaired will be mobile, according to Associated Press, describing a smart phone that snaps a picture of a $10 bill and a few seconds later, the phone says, "Twenty dollars."

"The Nokia cell phone is loaded with software that turns text on photographed documents into speech .It also allows users to read anything that is photographed, whether it's a restaurant menu, a phone book or a fax.

While the technology is not new, the NFB and the software's developer say the cell phone is the first to incorporate the text-to-speech ability.

The inventor plans to begin marketing the cell phone in February through K-NFB Reading Technology. The software will cost $1,595 and the cell phone is expected to cost about $500, Kurzweil said.

Sisi helps handset owners to 'speak' to deaf via video

For those struggling to communicate with the deaf could benefit from Sisi (Say it, Sign it), a system developed as part of IBM's Extreme Blue initiative. The Inquirer reports.

"Sisi takes input from text and then converts it into BSL (British Sign Language).

The really clever bit is that the Extreme Blue team which developed Sisi has married the conversion process to existing avatar technology.

At present the technique relies on communications with a server. It then returns the results as a video clip of the avatar signing the desired message.

Sisi would enable handset users to key a message into their mobile phones and then display the results as a video clip with the avatar signing.

At present the team see the technology as being initially taken up for voicemails and instant messaging.

In future they also hope to support other languages besides English."

Text4Deaf

Text4Deaf.com, a new communications-based Web site for the deaf community and the people with whom they interact, has been officially launched, according to TMC.net.

"The new Web site enables real-time text messaging with a Web interface to cell phones, regardless of the carrier.

In their own words: Text4Deaf allows users to send text messages from the Web to both individuals and groups, while enabling recipients to respond directly to the originating PC or Mac. Text4Deaf web texts can be sent from any web-enabled device worldwide to any U.S. or Canadian mobile phone.

Cell Phones Helping to Guide the Blind

In Stockholm, wireless technology helps blind people navigate independently, thanks to voice advisories from their mobile phones. Computerworld reports.

"The prototype system, uses a Nokia 6300 Symbian phone with earphones and a separate GPS unit linked to the phone through Bluetooth.

The complete system was tested by about a dozen sight-impaired and blind people in Sweden’s capital in late 2006. The navigation application locates the user and plots a path to the destination using a highly detailed GIS created and maintained by the city mainly for street maintenance and traffic management purposes.

The voice guide then alerts the user to upcoming turns and obstacles through early warnings, rather than instructing every move. The voice alerts (in Swedish) include phrases like “left turn in 10 meters” or “low wall on the right.” ...

Talking Mobile Phones for Visually Impaired Canadians

Cashing in on the aging population in Canada, Rogers Wireless has launched a "talking cellphone" in the form of Nokia 6682RVI, powered by screen reading software called Nuance TALKS. Mobile Weblog reports.

"Nokia 6682RVI handset into a "talking phone" by converting menus, instructions and content displayed on the screen into audio output through its internal speaker, or an optional wired or Bluetooth headset".

GPS navigation plan to help blind

An Italian technology company is pioneering a GPS satellite system that will give blind people greater independence and mobility. The BBC reports.

"The Easy Walk service, developed by Il Village, is currently being tested by a group of 30 people from the Italian Blind Union who are providing feedback. The plan is for Easy Walk to be launched to blind and partially sighted people in Piedmont in the autumn.

... It requires just two dedicated keys on the mobile phone - one which, when pressed, tells the user their exact location including the house or building number and the other one alerts the call centre that the person needs assistance with navigation.

An operator will then call the blind person, find out where it is they need to go and stay on the line with them providing step by step instructions."

Elder Phone slows down voices

Digital World Tokyo reports on NTT DoCoMo’s new mobile phone , The Raku-Raku Phone Basic, which caters to the elderly with lowered hearing and eyesight.

-- A "Slow Voice’ feature, slows down the spoken words coming through the earpiece for easy listening.

-- A ‘Clear Voice’ noise detection feature takes into account surrounding noise levels and adjusts the earpiece and ringtone volume accordingly.

-- An automated voice reads out text from email or web pages and announces incoming caller identities

-- And a pedometer that can work out daily calorie consumption."

Links to other elder phones

USA Requiring Phones to Work with Hearing Aids

To ensure that hearing aid users are provided with compatible mobile phones, the FCC has mandated that digital wireless phones which are manufactured or imported for use in the United States meet the requirements of the current ANSI C63.19:2006 standard (American National Standard for Methods of Measurement of Compatibility between Wireless Communications Devices and Hearing Aids).

"...Digital wireless service providers as well as manufacturers have to ensure that at least 50% of all handsets marketed meet the ANSI U3 or M3 (RF Emissions) hearing aid-compatibility requirements for each air interface offered.

The deadline to comply with these requirements is February 18, 2008.

About one in ten of the world population has some degree of hearing loss. This number is also on the increase as a result of the noise levels to which people are exposed and the demographic aging. "

[via Cellular News]