According to my daily morning fix of BBC News, a charity in the UK has developed software that converts voice calls to text on cell phones in real-time. How cool is that?!? Now, having worked with the deaf for a while, I believe this is definitely needed, but am not sure that there is such a technology here in the US. According to the article, only Vodafone (one of the UK’s largest cell providers, and operating as Verizon here in the States) is offering this service.
In any case, this technology will virtually eliminate the sometimes embarrassing, always frowned upon, use of relay service and interpreters. It is a point of contention among the deaf that the dependence on relay services-where a hearing person acts as a go-between the hearing caller and the deaf one-is one that has created lots of stress. Yes, there are other technologies, such as TTY (teletype services), that render the deaf more independent and I am sure, no I know, that text messaging and email have given the deaf even more independence, but this is sure to add another notch in the belt.
The original BBC article is here.