Changing Normal

This is an example of how technology has helped people with disabilities. Particular people like me, who are deaf but need to communicate with the ”speaking world”.

It provides a contrast to a previous post I wrote and highlights the possibilities.

It may also fit in possible future post about The Power of Making Things Easy.

So currently I'm in the hospital for a few days of medical exams and I need to be able to communicate with people.

Usually for surgeries or admissions via ER/ambulance, I need to bring a family member so they can help take care of most communications because at that point I'm not really sane.

That I guess won’t change… except I like to know what’s going on and make my own decisions when I can.

But with some new technologies and their growing acceptance (because they’re now getting into the mainstream), some things a getting a bit easier.

It’s now a bit easier take part in a conversation.

Above context is sort of spotty. I was talking to a nurse and last lines she was asking (gesturing to me) if I needed a blanket but I said I was fine because I had already put on a sweater by myself.

You can also see she made a remark about it finally being Friday ☺

My Problem

Most people don’t know sign language.

Even I don’t know it because I lost hearing a few years ago, after just graduating college. And where I live and work, the people I need to interact with daily don’t know it either.

So basically I need some way, a good and easy way, for other people to communicate with me.

The main method is still mostly writing: pen and paper, email, IM.

You can see from that list though technology has already replaced ”the old way”... as long as there’s Internet. That right there is another argument for universal Internet connectivity.

But there’s still a problem: writing is slow and most people can’t type at 200 WPM.

A lot of people just can’t/won’t accommodate…

On the other hand, speaking is much faster. It’s the preferred form of communication.

I know from my personal experience that it is a pain to ask people to write. They always try to speak to me first, assume I can lipread.

For Example...

When I order at fast-food restaurants, I either need to know my order exactly or when they ask me a question, I have to say: “Sorry I’m actually deaf, I can’t hear. Could you write it down?”

Since the customer is always right, they either scramble to find a pen and paper or use pseudo-sign language (pointing to the menu or making a drinking motion).

But if there’s someone with me (going back to a hospital situation), they will talk to them and I either get a (biased, incomplete) summary or that person makes the decision for me.

I Wish People Could Just Talk To Me

So Plan B: even though I am disabled… I need a way to accommodate normal people.

Years ago, if you searched for “Speech-to-Text” software (STT), you would only find crap programs that could barely recognize correctly any of the words you said, let alone an entire sentence.

But then came machine learning, voice recognition, Siri, Allo, Cortana…

Now STT is a hot topic along with natural language processing (NLP) aka making machines that understand us.

And thus, as a side benefit, there are some new technologies that I can use, as pictured above.

More importantly, the idea of talking into a phone, to a machine, isn’t so weird and uncomfortable anymore.

At worst it’s a novelty, but one that most people now are willing to try.

I guess it goes back to Steve Jobs’ quote

Sometimes, people don’t actually know what they want until they have it.

I may know what I want, but have to get others to try it and after which they like it.

A lot of the younger nurses (I guess more tech-savvy, comfortable with it) that I’ve used Ava (ava.me) now tell me to turn it on when they need to talk to me…

It’s still not quite Plan A though as not quite natural yet and you need to speak clearly and slowly, but it’s pretty good and better than writing… if both parties are willing to try.

Of course, there still remains other problems too... Not everyone has seen the light of using technology to help make things easier and society more inclusive...