Technology Needs for Deaf in Apartments and Retirement Centers

by Donald Moore, October 2018

Overview

This is a shorter version of of a posting I did for the Illinois Association of the Deaf's website, which focuses mainly on the human and technology needs for deaf consumers in apartments and retirement centers.  If you want to read the full version, read “Apartments and Retirement Centers for the Deaf” article on IAD’s website.

In 2017, I had the opportunity to visit “Martha’s Vineyard Place”, which is a Deaf Apartment complex, in Dallas, Texas during a side excursion while on a combined business/personal trip.  The complex is entirely new and is open for residents.  See below flyer and contact the apartment management directly for any residency questions. 

Current and Future Living Arrangements

While many deaf are currently living in apartments, condos/town-homes and single family homes - have not yet considered what type of living arrangements may be desired or needed in the future.  This can be challenging considering the social and communication needs of deaf residents when approaching retirement or requiring senior and assistive care. 

Some places only offer housing for those requiring low-income assistance.  Oftentimes, availability is limited and there can be long waiting lists.  It is a possible that with the large number of “baby boomers” (1946-1964), and the “Rubella Bulge” (1960’s) entering their senior years - that availability will become limited. 

Always check on availability in advance and do not assume there is space immediately ready.

Very few places offer full accommodations for deaf residents.  Some accommodations may be non-existent or minimal.  While everyone’s accommodative needs may be different, the need for social interaction with others is equally important.  The need for on-going human and social interaction is one of the basic needs as identified within Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Thus this is where the value of deaf designed centers is important.  Especially within the Physiological needs as shown in Maslow's Hierarchy of needs chart (see below).  Again there is a very small subset of communities that offer full inclusion for deaf residents.

What is Full Inclusion for Deaf?

Staff that can sign and communicate well with residents, the availability of hearing assistive devices for entry gates/doors, fire and security alert systems.  As well as communication systems such as the availability of video phones/conferencing, and the wide-availability of high-speed Internet and WI-FI access for two-way video (i.e. FaceTime, Skype and VRS/VRI), and email.  Not only that, the residency of other residents with similar communication needs (signing in ASL) allows others to fully participate in conversations, social and gaming activities.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 

Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html 

Conduct the appropriate research and follow up will help you determine availability and the match for your needs.

Donald Moore can be reached at mooredlm@gmail.com for any questions, feedback or comments.

Virtual Teams - Technologies in the Work Place for Deaf/HOH Professionals

I recently read “A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams", by Yael Zofi.

http://amzn.com/0814416594   

This book provides insights, tips, and what is expected when working with virtual teams.  Suggested read for anyone who works remotely and/or with split in-office and remote employees.  While virtual team are not entirely new, they have become more commonplace over the past decade. As Forbes magazine pointed out in 2013, today approximately 30 million workers telecommute at least one day a week from their homes (1). 

On the flip side, one thing not often mentioned in business books such as this one: many of the same remote / tele-worker / video conferencing concepts and technologies can also be applied to deaf/hoh workers.  In the past 5 to 7 years, video relay services (like video conferencing), on-line and wireless/mobile technologies (email/instant messaging), and live-captioning have become more widely available for usage in the workplace.  

These are valuable tools that can be used by deaf/hoh professionals to help level the playing field with communication, provide equal access to employment and career advancement opportunities.  Oftentimes, accommodation costs are minimal and employees usually know what works for them.  I encourage managers, human resources / talent officers to reach out and learn about such available tools and services for employees. In many cases, these technologies can be quickly implemented and put to use.

I plan additional blogs on these topics to expand awareness of accessibility tools in the workplace, along with other relevant employment and Economic topics.

References

(1). http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/02/18/one-in-five-americans-work-from-home-numbers-seen-rising-over-60/ 

Revised Recommendations: Web Contact Form Design for W3C

In 2001 I recommended to the W3C Accessibility Consortium to suggest including additional fields on web contact forms to help facilitate communication with deaf/hoh consumers. This recommendation was eventually published in a book - refer to this link for more information. http://home.comcast.net/~mooredlm/accessibility/published.htm

Since 2001, new technologies and ways of contacting and interacting with professionals and consumers have greatly changed, thus the original form design recommendation is due for an update.

While the need to update the form has been floating in the background for sometime, I recently received an email from a Web Site Manager from a Government web site in the Washington, D.C. area asking if the recommendations are still relevant and/or should be updated - a sign that the recommendation needs to be updated.

Hence the reason for this blog entry:
I have updated the suggested web contact form design, and would like input on the new form design, which contains updated ways on one can be contacted.

The redesigned form is available for your review and comments at:
http://home.comcast.net/~mooredlm/accessibility/revised_w3c_recommendation.html

The most recent form changes are

Removed Pager number and pin fields as numeric based pagers are nearly extinct and not as user friendly,

Greater emphasis on wireless / mobile device email addresses,

The inclusion of Videophone numbers,

Fax and TTY options should remain on the form for those older, or not yet utilizing modern communication mediums such as wireless/mobile devices and VP (video phones) such as the Sorenson VP-200, Purple P3, and ZVRS Z4.

If you have any comments, feedback and/or other suggestions, feel free to send me an email at mooredlm at gmail.com

After I receive a reasonable number of replies and comments, I will update the web form design recommendations, and re-submit to the W3C for their consideration.

On the flip-side, if you are involved in web development, design, communications or printed media for your organization/company, take a few moments to consider bringing up similar accessibility recommendations for your contact / help desk web forms.

I look forward to your feedback, suggestions and comments.


Regards,

- Donald
Prosumertech Blog
http://prosumertech.blogspot.com

Flattening World for Deaf / Hard of Hearing Consumers and Professionals

I created a white-paper and a PowerPoint presentation about the "Flattening World for Deaf / HOH Consumers and Professionals", which discusses the how the latest technologies and services have helped level the playing field for deaf/hoh consumers and professionals in recent years.

Also discussed, is why corporations should pay attention to this often overlooked population segment, along with a few general tips on how they can improve their products and services to meet these consumers and working professionals.

Read the white paper and/or view the PowerPoint presentation - provide feedback, comments, share with friends, co-workers and recruiters. Hopefully this article and presentation will be a small step in the right direction to help improve consumer and employment relations for the deaf/hoh population segment.

I welcome feed back and comments to help further improve and update this white paper and/or presentation. Feel free to share

these links with others as long as you cite the source.

Estimated 278 Million Deaf/HoH Consumers WorldWide

Updated: Last Spring while conducting research for a paper for my MBA program, I came across the World Health Organization’s (WHO) web site, where a web page listed that there is an estimated 278 million deaf / hoh people around the world - thus I have updated the tag line of my blog to reflect the latest estimates. This is a 178 million increase from the previous estimate of 100 million worldwide that was mentioned else where.

Yet, for a large number of them, they reside in low-to middle income population zones, where access to technology goods such as computers and the Internet may be extremely limited.

WHO estimates that the number of deaf/hoh consumers is expected to increase due to increasingly aging population segments - everyone naturally loses their hearing as they age, regardless of ethnicity. The bottom line is that companies should pay attention, and produce products and services for this growing population segment.

The WHO page outlining the latest count of deaf / hoh people in the world can be viewed at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/

Leader in Deaf Community to Head Outreach Efforts for Snap!VRS

Snap!VRS announces the recent hire of Sean Gerlis, the President of the New Jersey Association of the Deaf.
http://www.snapvrs.com/about_us/press/article/?id=24

Purple Announces Community Campaign: Dream Bigger

Purple announced a new community campaign called Dream Bigger (http://www.purple.us/dreambigger). The campaign honors 10 Trailblazers in the Deaf Community from across the country that have had tremendous impact in the areas of sports, civil rights, politics, business, language, community, medicine, art, and education.

Over the next three months, there will be local events (across the US) in the communities of the Trailblazers honoring their commitment to the Deaf Community. In addition to honoring the Trailblazer, Purple will have their new P3 netbooks on site to show attendees their latest products, specifically designed for the deaf and hard-of-hearing market.

In October, all the Trailblazers will convene in Washington D.C. for the 'Trailblazers of the Year' Gala dinner where one of the ten Trailblazers will be awarded $10,000 in their name given to the deaf charity of their choice.

By visiting the Dream Bigger website, visitors can view videos from all the Trailblazers, find information on the local events and vote for who they think the Trailblazer of the Year should be.

DeafCode Launches Captionfish.com, a Captioned Film Search Engine

With summer quickly approaching – a lot of new movies are being released. Yet, would you like to look for open captioned or rear window view movies showing at theaters near you? 

Then, check out Captionfish.com, a new web service being offered by DeafCode.Com

-------

Captionfish.com provides captioned movie results for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
Captionfish.com's Instant CC Film Finder™ provides effortless location search; New theaters added daily

SEATTLE, WA – May 18, 2009 – DeafCode, LLC. announces the launch of its first beta of Captionfish.com. It is the first website to integrate an Instant CC Film Finder™, which provides immediate and effortless custom results within 30 miles of a chosen location, refreshed on each visit to Captionfish.com. Results for up to 7 days in the future and 60 miles away are available at the click of a button. "The DeafCode Team was inspired to create Captionfish because of the need to find a comprehensive list of captioned movies in one place," said Chris Sano, DeafCode, LLC. Co-Founder. "We've received a tremendously positive response and feel Captionfish has the potential to become one of the most popular online destinations for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. We are adding more theaters every day and will continue to enhance the website's functionality with new features - many driven by our visitors' feedback."

Additional highlights of Captionfish.com's features include:

• Effortless Searching- Using its Instant CC Film Finder™ Captionfish offers the easiest way for visitors to find captioned movie results within 30 miles of their location.
• Comprehensive results- Captionfish's Instant CC Film Finder™ results can be customized for up to 7 days in the future or up to 60 miles away from a specified location.
• Open Captions and Rear Window identification- Captionfish.com provides easy to identify icons that distinguish between an "open captioned" or "rear window captioned" showing.
• Mobile edition- Captionfish provides a mobile website optimized for mobile phones so deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors can find captioned movie results while they are on the go. Mobile applications for Smart phones are under development.
• Closed Captioned Trailers- Captionfish links to a growing list of closed captioned movie trailers so the deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors can enjoy previews of current and upcoming movie releases.
• RSS Feed for custom results- Captionfish enables an RSS feed so each visitor can check for the latest captioned film results using their preferred RSS reader wherever they like.

About DeafCode LLC.

Founded in 2009 by three deaf internet professionals with 30 years of combined experience, DeafCode LLC's mission is to utilize their skills and technological expertise to enhance the overall internet experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. DeafCode is based in Seattle, WA. For more information, visit www.deafcode.com

###
Captionfish.com and DeafCode are trademarks of DeafCode, LLC. All other company and product names may be trademarks
of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Accessible Microsoft MS-Word 2007 Online Training

Microsoft provides text transcripts for some of their Microsoft Office 2007 web training resources.  In this case, for MS-Word 2007.

This is especially useful for those who can not utilize audio / voice overs on web presentations and demos.

 

Check out the following link: http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC100664431033&CTT=6&Origin=RP100664401033