We say deaf & hard-of-hearing please, not hearing-impaired.
Lip reading is hard, period. Over video makes it harder when network connection isn’t great, and more people speak, so mostly difficult yeah.
Flashes / vibration are common alerts yes. I prefer flash since you might not touch the surface that vibrates.
And yes one-handed sign over video is very frequent but maybe best for 1-1 or familiar groups because indeed you can lose a bit in precision/fluidity. If you want to be accessible over video, find a stable place and sign with dark colored shirt so contrast is better ;)
I'm a (hearing) son in an all-deaf family, and am a bit tired to wait for every single service to become accessible.
Why not just be platform-agnostic? It's the same problem that has been going on for non-captioned videos for years.
If a captioning service is going to be exclusive to only Google Meet or Teams, then by definition, it's not inclusive.
So when we come on Zoom with my parents, they use Ava http://www.ava.me to caption what I say with their speakers on.
It looks like a caption bar, floating on top of the screen, so when I share my screen they can still see captions.
My dad started using Ava at work where they use GoToMeeting. They just won't move to Zoom easily so he gets access without having to shift the whole company on it.
The software also separates who says what neatly if you share a link in the chat and people connect to it. Also voices out what's typed on the other end.
We're a unique breed: a deep tech (4 PhDs), mission-driven (100,000 deaf/hard-of-hearing users relying on our work) and VC-funded startup (SV Angel, Initialized, Khosla), and we're doubling our team to 15.
Our goal is to improve how we humans connect & communicate with each other using human & artificial intelligence. First through using a patented multi-peer speech recognition technology app that empowers 450M deaf and hard-of-hearing people to have exceptionally accurate captions for any conversation they're a part of. That unique focus is because I (CEO/Founder) grew up in a Deaf family & witnessed how the world was not accessible for them, then cofounded Ava with my CTO Skinner, deaf since age 2.
Specifically, we're hiring makers (engs + designer) who want to be at the very beginning of a rocketship. All jobs are here: http://www.ava.me/jobs but these following 3 positions will be filled quickly (it's my #1 focus):
1) a Full-Stack Developer (~2-5+ years exp), with React and Node background, to take the lead on building out the Ava experience on the web. Really powerful B2C & B2B applications through it, with real-time & scalability challenges. Should care about all the details that makes a first experiences become magical for a new user, and committed to make a huge impact on society.
2) a Backend Developer (~2-5+ years exp) with DevOps, Node, Python skills as their strong suit. Will own designing and scaling Ava's AI infrastructure, supporting mission-critical algorithms for our users.
3) a Product Designer, exp. in B2C & B2B platforms, mobile & web. Open to animations, UI/UX. Will be working with deaf users & probably learning sign language as a result :) Huge role in leading redesign, branding & empowering our community - very active because it's often life-critical for them to use Ava.
Ava (www.ava.me) | San Francisco and Paris | FullStack, Software & Backend Engineers, Product Designer | ONSITE (in 9 months, can be REMOTE until then) | Positions: http://www.ava.me/jobs
We're a unique breed: a deep tech (4 PhDs), mission-driven (100,000 deaf/hard-of-hearing users relying on our work) and VC-funded startup (SV Angel, Initialized, Khosla), and we're doubling our team to 15.
Our goal is to improve how we humans connect & communicate with each other using human & artificial intelligence. First through using a patented multi-peer speech recognition technology app that empowers 450M deaf and hard-of-hearing people to have exceptionally accurate captions for any conversation they're a part of. That unique focus is because I (CEO/Founder) grew up in a Deaf family & witnessed how the world was not accessible for them, then cofounded Ava with my CTO Skinner, deaf since age 2.
Specifically, we're hiring makers (engs + designer) who want to be at the very beginning of a rocketship.
All jobs are here: http://www.ava.me/jobs but these following 3 positions will be filled quickly (it's my #1 focus):
1) a Full-Stack Developer (~2-5+ years exp), with React and Node background, to take the lead on building out the Ava experience on the web. Really powerful B2C & B2B applications through it, with real-time & scalability challenges. Should care about all the details that makes a first experiences become magical for a new user, and committed to make a huge impact on society.
2) a Backend Developer (~2-5+ years exp) with DevOps, Node, Python skills as their strong suit. Will own designing and scaling Ava's AI infrastructure, supporting mission-critical algorithms for our users.
3) a Product Designer, exp. in B2C & B2B platforms, mobile & web. Open to animations, UI/UX. Will be working with deaf users & probably learning sign language as a result :) Huge role in leading redesign, branding & empowering our community - very active because it's often life-critical for them to use Ava.
Phone calls - try RogerVoice app to have them transcribed for you. It's pretty easy but not free.
Ava - we focus on any in-person discussions, including meetings. The trick with group conversations is the cross-talk, and people speaking fast/casually. We developed over the last 3 years an AI that eliminates these issues to make it work exactly for this situation. Others will need to download the app (Ava), but it's free to join a host, and hosts get 5 hours every month to try the app 100% free.
Regarding the embarrassing situation of having to ask others, I see this a lot - that's really normal.
First, know that you can use Ava by itself with your phone, a bit like a "talking stick". It can look like you're checking your phone when you are actually checking what the person actually said if what you heard.
Just hold your phone within 1-2 meters from the speaker.
If you have a Bluetooth microphones, those make Ava really awesome: you can find an earpiece or a clip on (we recommend a few here: www.ava.me/store) so you can follow presentations/meetings when one person speak for a long time and is hard to lip read. Airpods or such work too, and of course wired microphones (for lunch for example).
For more situations, I really encourage you to read our FAQ: http://help.ava.me - we list like 95% of daily situations a deaf/hard-of-hearing person finds themselves into and how Ava can help there.
PS: feel free to give us any feedback on this, we're all ears & eyes :)
Awesome, let us know via the app how you find it.
The key is for group conversations: multiple people talking, which is really dope for accuracy vs. your understanding, is my guess :)
hi tsm, founder of Transcense here. beyond the impact we want to do, we always at some point built on top of others/existing technologies. Innovation definition is tricky. Is it in the technical implementation (an Instagram is not that complicated after all) or in the productization/distribution to market?
We're humbled to have been posted on HN, not from us. But stay updated, what's coming next will be even more interesting.
We say deaf & hard-of-hearing please, not hearing-impaired.
Lip reading is hard, period. Over video makes it harder when network connection isn’t great, and more people speak, so mostly difficult yeah.
Flashes / vibration are common alerts yes. I prefer flash since you might not touch the surface that vibrates.
And yes one-handed sign over video is very frequent but maybe best for 1-1 or familiar groups because indeed you can lose a bit in precision/fluidity. If you want to be accessible over video, find a stable place and sign with dark colored shirt so contrast is better ;)