New hope for the deaf via technology
As all of us can imagine, being deaf presents a vast range of problems, but the two highest ranking of these are safety considerations and social interaction issues. Unbelievably until now, many deaf people have had to rely heavily upon family members to translate as best as they can for them during such situations as interviews and appointments etc.
It is not that there are no professional translators available; the problem lies in the fact that the 50,000 odd people who communicate through BSL (British Sign Language), have to go through a process of booking an interpreter up to two weeks in advance and then be forced to pay a minimum of £130 (because the minimum hire period is for three hours). Now, however, it seems that technology is about to provide an answer to this problem.
Deaf people should no longer be reliant upon a physically present translator thanks to a method of enabling them to communicate via a remote translator. The idea is that Doctors surgeries, council offices and other venues of social interaction, would be equipped with a computer terminal; the hearing person could then talk to a remote translator and the translator would then communicate to the deaf person via a monitor screen. The deaf person could communicate back to the translator via a web cam attached to the screen and the translator would communicate the message back to the hearing person via a headset.
This marvellous idea is proposed to be rolled out to various venues of possible interaction between the deaf and the aurally able. Great idea, but Skype video chats have been around for years…wonder why nobody thought of this before.