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.

Contact Numbers and Email Addresses to the 4th Power

In these days, it seems many of us are getting multiple assigned device numbers and email addresses - how can one possibly memorize them all?

Yet this all seems ironic given that many deaf and hard of hearing consumers may not utilize voice services, and actually end up having more phone numbers than hearing consumers.  This article will illustrate some examples of what has become common and tips on how to manage to share your contact information with others.

While the various relay services, communication devices, and various touch points (VP, VRS, email and wireless devices), are a blessing in disguise, we seem to have more numbers and email addresses for each person than ever before.

For arguments sake – below is an illustration of an example of what a family of four usually has to keep track of:

Work
- Local 10 digit number
- VP Device number(s)
- Toll free number
- Blackberry SMS number
- Fax (While its not relay related, its another number to track)
* Multiply the count of numbers by two if you have a working spouse

Home
- Landline or Other VOIP (broadband phone service) number
- VP assigned number some may have more than one VP device (I.e. VP-200, Z-340, PC based, etc).
- My own toll free number
- Spouses toll free number
- My wireless device SMS number
- Spouses device SMS number
- Teens wireless device SMS number(s) 
* Multiply by the number of wireless phones in the household

As the above illustrates, for work and in a family of four, there are about 12 different numbers to use and to keep track of.
Why I say "about" - because new technologies are forthcoming and changing all the time -thus new numbers will come and go.

Multiple Email Addresses
Now about multiple email addresses - no doubt many of us have more than one email address as well. We have them for various reasons – such as for work, home and wireless devices.

Examples
- Work email
- Home primary email
- Push email provider (for wireless device) (I.e. MobileMe, Mail2web, Fusemail, Gmail, Hotmail, etc).
- Spouses primary email
- Spouses push email provider (for wireless device)
- Kids primary email addresses
- Kids wireless phone email addresses

Add them up, that's a minimum of 7 email accounts for a family of four. Image the same with your friends – dealing with multiple email addresses and numbers.

Solution
What to do?
Only give out contact numbers and email addresses on an as need to know basis. There is no need to share all numbers and email addresses with everyone, you should selectively give your email/number to your contacts to prevent confusion.

For example, for your immediate family, share the primary contact points with them. 
For your friends and distant others, you may have a different set of preferences and ways for them to contact you.

Tips

• Create Different Versions of Personal Contact Cards
  Use FedexKinkos and Vistaprint.com, they can print up hundreds of cards in a flash for a low cost.
  If you need a few just cards print them yourselves.  Microsoft Word and Publisher offer document templates that allow you to create and print your own contact cards.  You can buy business card paper in most office supply stores (Avery paper).
• Document Email Addresses and Numbers into a MS-Word, MS-Excel or other readable format
  This will provide you a way to keep track of your numbers and email accounts.
• Utilize Address Books on Your Computer (i.e. Ms-Outlook, email/ISP provider) and Your Wireless Handheld
  By doing this, it will help you better manage your contact information, and reduce the need to memorize so many numbers and email addresses.

Lastly, make an effort to memorize at least some you important numbers and email addresses for emergencies or when you computer and/or handheld wireless device is not available.

Email Signatures

This blog entry covers email signatures:

What is a email signature?
It is an electronic signature with your contact info at the bottom of your email messages.

Email mail signatures usually provides the key information for the receiver to know how to contact you in return.

Why: You may be wondering what's wrong with the standard email header name and address that's included in the email header. While there is nothing wrong with using the standard email signature format options. However, given that deaf/ hard of hearing consumers / professionals tend to utilize several modes of communication while at work - Thus your friend or colleague may want to learn more about the alternative ways they can contact you. You can also proactively (voluntarily) indicate to them on the various ways they can contact you.

I have found that the use of email signatures at work proves to be more beneficial than at home because I work with co-workers country-wide. Personal contacts usually already know the best way to reach me.

What's in a signature?
Basically it can be whatever your like, but I recommend limiting it to the various ways/preferences on how you can be contacted.

Below is a fictional mock up of my email signature to illustrate an example of an email signature.

John Doe Blog Writer (job title) Company XYZ Chicago, Illinois http://www.companyxyz.com/

Email: john.doe@mail.com Sms: 123-321-4321 Message Service: 123-123-2356 Fax: 333-555-2222 Notes SameTime: John Doe

Comments:

- Adjust the description names to your preference.

- If you have a 10 digit relay number include it. I usually indicate it by calling it "Message Service" so the words "Relay Service" doesn't alienate some people.

- If you have an internal instant messages program at work: include its name.

- If you have access at work to one of the public instant messages providers like: Aim, Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo, etc. Include the info as well. Such as: Aim: Johndoe

- If applicable, add your VP number or ip address.

- Some people may include links to other relevant information such as their LinkedIn or Facebook profiles or personal web sites. However I would be cautious about including such in your work email signature.

On the PC side, both Notes and Ms-Outlook provides ways of settling up your signature to be automatically inserted in your email messages. Refer to your software help function on how to set one up.

Ms-Outlook allows you to utilize more than one email signature. This is helpful if you have more than one email account and/or have different contact preferences depending on who you are corresponding with.

Most wireless devices allow you to include a signature automatically. Some even allow multiple signatures but that can be tricky to set up and is not discussed here.

Bottom line is that by setting up your email program to automatically include a preformatted email signature, you can increase the chances of your messages being returned or be contacted in the future.

Format your signature depending on your needs. I don't recommend including any personal information such as your SSN or home address to protect your identity.
Lastly, be sure to test your email signature by emailing yourself until you are satisfied on how it looks to ensure that its error free and neatly organized.

Email away!

Wireless Device: Phone Research and Shopping

While conducting some research on the latest wireless phones, I came across a web site that you might find quite useful: www.infosyncworld.com. 

This web site has reviews for many wireless / cell phones, laptops, and digital cameras.  The site has product reviews, comparison charts, and gives you the ability to compare phones side by side in terms of their features and ratings.  For example, you can compare the Apple iPhone against a Blackberry Curve 8330 in terms of their sizes and reviewers ratings.

Besides doing your own comparisons, I recommend reading web reviews for checkpoints that may or may not be of concern to you.  You don't necessarily have to agree to the ratings or the positive / negative comments provided by the reviewers - they can serve as a starting point for things you might want to consider or be on the look out for.

If you "power users" are researching for your next wireless phone, I recommend the following methods of researching for your next wireless device:

• Utilize reviews and comparison charts at www.infosyncworld.com and www.cnet.com
• Download and review owners manuals for each device - usually found either at the wireless carrier's and/or manufacturers web site.
• Consider visiting stores that have live working examples of the phones to get a feel of the devices in your hands.
• Talk to friends and co-workers who may have the wireless device you are interested in.

For some, researching wireless phones in depth may seem an overkill.  But remember, once you purchase a device, sign up for services, and go beyond the 30 day "trial period", you are usually bound to a 2 year contract which can be equally expensive to break if you terminate it within two years.

Some say its usually good practice to upgrade or replace wireless devices after a minimum of two years to stay on top of technological advances and software upgrades.  In other cases, if your device is more than two years old and it still meets your needs - then keep using it until it gets to the point its no longer reliable or supported by your carrier.  There may be a dozen of other reasons why you may/may not want to change devices or carriers, but that's  often left up to the owners.

Lastly, when new devices first come out on the market, they usually have a few "bugs" and kinks to work out.  If there is a newer device or model you are interested in, if possible, wait a couple of months to let the "early adopters" identify and work out early issues.

Tips for Managing Your Email Accounts

Today, many people have more than one email addresses.  Especially those within the deaf / hard of hearing population segment tend to have multiple email accounts in order to accommodate the use of wireless email devices. Drawing on my personal experiences, follow these tips for managing your wireless and wired email accounts.

- To reduce the number of wireless email messages you get, only give out its email address to a select few people.  Such as family, important friends, co-workers and significant others. So that your wireless device isn't buzzing all day long.

- Use a Internet service provider email account for your everyday non-time sensitive / everyday emails.  If you do not have Internet services at home,  try Gmail (Google), Yahoo, and Hotmail, which are free email providers.

- Utilize RSS feeds and news readers to help cut down on e-mailbox clutter from subscriptions.  In fact, this blog is available via a Rss reader such as Google Reader.  Review your email subscriptions and see if you can subscribe to RSS feeds instead of their email services.

- If possible, utilize email rules on your computer (I.e. Ms Outlook) or with your email provider.  By using rules you can automatically sort incoming emails to designated folders.

For example, I sign up for Chicago Tribune email alerts to stay on top of important breaking news which I can access wirelessly.  The next time when I use my computer to check / respond to my regular my emails, a rule will automatically dump Chicago Tribune emails into a specific folder. There I can either re-read, save certain messages, or delete them all at once instead of having to peck and hunt to emails received from with in Inbox.  This is especially the case when I travel and emails easily pile up.  By using various email rules, I can clean out my mailbox faster and spend less time managing my box.

For email subscriptions, I sign up for RSS feeds whenever possible.  It helps to keep the number of emails down even more.

Lastly, be careful who you provide your email addresses to.  If its someone you don't know, its likely to be a spammer (junk emailer).  They can get you on all kinds of email lists, and you can end up getting a lot of junk email. Which requires time to clean out or set up email rejection rules.  In worst case scenarios, if spam email seriously becomes a problem, you can create new email account(s) and start over.  Which of course take time and requires you to notify your contacts so they can update their electronic address books.

By keeping these email rules in mind, you can get a better handle on your e-mail boxes and be more productive.