Thank you to Dyer Art Center & SLT for your support from the National Technical Institute of the Deaf and community in America.
A new version "#Whereisthelove" by The Black Eyed Peas featuring The World was released on August 31, 2016, in collaboration with a great number of artists within the music industry. The proceeds of the charity single will go to educational programs.
Deaf News: Forbes.com - 4 Game-Changing Technologies For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 360 million people worldwide with a disabling hearing loss, including 32 million children and one-third of people over 65 years of age. Hearing loss may result from genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases, chronic ear infections, the use of particular drugs, exposure to excessive noise and aging.
One of the main impacts of hearing loss is on the individual’s ability to communicate with others, since spoken language development is often delayed in children with deafness. Limited access to services and exclusion from communication can have a significant impact on everyday life, causing feelings of loneliness, isolation and frustration, particularly among older people with hearing loss.
Recent advances in technology have the potential to improve the quality of life for those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Here’s a look at four products in this space that caught our attention.
MotionSavvy UNI: MotionSavvy, founded by a team of students from Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, announced “the world’s first two-way communication software for the Deaf.” UNI translates American Sign Language (ASL) into speech, and speech into text. It utilizes a special camera to track the location of both hands and all ten fingers. Graphic representations of the hands provide live feedback to make sure gestures are being captured correctly. The software’s dictionary can be expanded with customized signs added by the user. There’s also an option to upload those signs to the Internet, to share with others. The more an individual uses the system, the more accurate and tailored it becomes. To facilitate the Hearing-to-Deaf half of the communication, the package also includes Dragon Nuance Pro, one of the leading pieces of voice recognition software. Interested customers will have to wait for MotionSavvy UNI, but not long.
Exclusive Interviews: Meet one of New York City’s first Deaf uber drivers.
NEW YORK CITY - Pin Lu Was an accountant before ferrying passengers; ‘Deaf people are good drivers because they focus and pay attention’ Many initially convey surprise or concern when they discover he can’t hear, but he said being Deaf gives him an advantage in honk-filled. In many ways, Pin Lu is a typical UberX driver.
He uses his own car, complete with a crocheted owl dangling from the rearview mirror, to ferry passengers who hail him via the popular ride-sharing app.
He often works long hours, saving to start his own business someday. And he takes pride in his user ratings, saying he has earned 4.82 out of a possible 5 stars. But when New Yorkers step into Mr. Lu’s green 2011 Honda Accord, many are surprised to be handed a note asking them to type a destination into the GPS.
“Let me know if you have a preferred route by using your hand motion as direction,” it reads. “If you have any questions, knock your hand to my shoulder. Write/type note to me as communication.”
Uber Technologies Inc. estimates it has about 40 Deaf “driver-partners” across the U.S. and predicts that number is likely to grow as the company expands into new markets.
Mr. Lu, a spokeswoman said, is one of its first in the New York area.
Mr. Lu, 29 years old, was born without hearing in Fuzhou, China, and immigrated to Queens, New York with his family when he was 10.
After earning an accounting degree from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2011, he spent about two years doing accounting work for the Defense Department in Rome, N.Y., but he grew tired of small-town life “in the middle of nowhere,” he says.
Mr. Lu moved back to the New York area and switched paths, becoming a driver for Uber and occasionally for its competitor Lyft, earning his Taxi and Limousine Commission license in July.
Most weeks, he said, he now spends five to seven days a week seven to 10 hours a day behind the wheel.
Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing people in New York can get a driver's license with a restriction specifying they need a hearing aid or a full-view rearview mirror, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
“If I can do it, so can you.” Larry is Deaf and on a mission to follow his dreams. Find out how partnering with Uber made it possible for him to move to LA and support his family while starting a new career.
While the community is large, the job prospects for the Deaf and hard of hearing are not. What can the business community in Rochester do to reverse the Deaf talent drain?
VIDEO: Lydia Callis: Bloomberg's interpreter goes viral. Meet Lydia Callis, the mayor's sign language interpretor who became the city's newest hearthrob.
Meet Lydia Callis, the mayor's sign language interpretor who became the city's newest hearthrob. Stealing the show with her passionate facial expressions and signs.
Clearly there is nothing funny about mass casualties and a region under water. But Lydia Callis has at least given people something to smile about in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
The sign language interpreter for Mayor Michael Bloomberg has gone viral. Mayor Bloomberg addresses the public while his signer feels the beat of the hurricane mane! as seen on YouTube.
The stories of devastation and destruction on the local news lately have not provided much in the way of relief unless, that is, you happened to catch sight of a sign language interpreter named Lydia Callis.
And she was pretty hard to miss. Ms. Callis has been a fixture at Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s news briefings, gesticulating, bobbing and nodding her way through the words of city officials as she communicates for the hearing impaired... Read More at NY Times.
She has inspired a tribute Tumblr page: Lydia Callis’s Facial Expressions, which has compiled images of her expressions as she signs. In one photo, Mr. Bloomberg looks on from behind, seemingly fixated on her hands.
