Technology for the deaf and hard of hearing

Technology for the Deaf

There are a number of technologies that are used to aid the hearing impaired in their communication with the hearing world. Some of the technology is external, some internal. The external types are less controversial to the community than the internal types; there is a schism within the deaf community, in fact, about implants and other implanted devices that allow hearing impaired individuals to "hear" (the Cochlear Implant Controversy, 2009).

External Technological Devices -- External devices for the deaf have improved greatly over the past several decades. With the advent of smaller processor chips, greater Internet speed, and a deeper penetration of users, communication is far easier. For instance:

Teletype (TTY) -- the TTY is an electronic device that is used to communicate over a standard telephone line. It can operate in one of two ways: 1) One person can type over a special machine that goes to a service operator and then is read to the other person, or; 2) if both parties have TTY machines, they can simply type over the machine, which converts it to text. This was popular prior to chat and email and are now almost obsolete (Nomeland, et.al;, 2012, p. 182).

Cell Phone or Laptop Notepads -- Smart Phones and Laptops/Tablets have become so user friendly and popular that many people can simply use them to type out SMS text messages, use a tablet to write just as on a notepad, or use a WordPad or word-processing program to send notes, show the other party, or save documents (Baron, 2008).

Social Media - Social media is a relatively new term that includes web and mobile-based technologies that allow communication to be more of an interactive dialog between individuals, communities, and organizations. It is a way that technology is used to enhance communications and enable different sorts of cultures and groups to interact. One author defined it as "a group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological fo0undations [of Internet technology to] allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content" (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 188).

Closed Captioning/CART -- Closed captioning provides an ongoing written transcription of movies, television, and/or stage productions. With new technology, Closed Captioning has moved into Communication Access Real-Tim Translation, or CART. CART transcribes spoken words into printed text onto a screen or computer, and is much more interactive and used for not only entertainment, but court or other official meeting presentations (Nomeland, pp. 180-1).

Alert Systems -- Are relatively low-tech; flashing lights when the doorbell rings, vibrating pillows if there is a smoke or burglar alarm, etc. Most of these technologies have been supplanted by more sophisticated applications on smart phones (Nomeland, p. 187).