PRIMARY RESEARCH
About two to four people, out of a total of 1,000, within the United States identify themselves as "functionally deaf;" meaning that they are deaf or hard of hearing (1). A study conducted in February 2010 by the Current Population Survey (CPS) has calculated that 32 million (out of a total of 360 million) functionally deaf people are children that have been born without the ability to hear or have developed hearing loss at a young age due to due to genetic causes, complications at birth, or certain infectious diseases (2).
The main impact of hearing loss is on the individual’s inability to communicate with others. The limited accessibility to services in schools and exclusion from communication can affect young children's social life. Furthermore, the lack of assistance in the workplace and business settings drastically impacts peoples everyday life, causing feelings of loneliness, isolation, and frustration (3). The social divide between the deaf and the hearing community causes segregation within the scholastic and professional workplace. Of a total population living in the United States, 44.4% of individuals with a severe to profound hearing loss did not graduate from high school and only 5.1% have graduated from college (4). Furthermore, although the American with Disability Act gives deaf individuals legal protection against discriminatory hiring practices, accommodations for the deaf or hard of hearing within the workplace are rarely meet due to high costs and the inconvenient process (5). The unemployment status of persons with disability is 16.01%; double the number of a person with no disability (6).
In today’s “digital age,” the field of science and technology have exploded, impacting every corner of academia, industry, and commerce. With the development of voice assistive technology, such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, technology is revolutionizing the way we live, move, and interact with each other (7). In the past five years, voice user interfaces have grown and dominated the market by bringing brands closer to their users (8). However, voice technologies are not perfect: the absence of displays and screens limit their accessibility (9). People that are deaf or hard of hearing are not able to use voice AI in their everyday life.
Currently, recent advances within the field of technology have invested with the attempt to improve the life of those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Amazon is working on developing the AWS DeepLens, a platform that will allow Alexa and other voice interfaces to understand the ASL alphabet (10). MotionSavvy UNI built the world's first two-way communication software able to translate American Sign Language (ASL) into speech (11). Furthermore, devices such as ISEEWHATYOUSAY (12) and Ava (13) are able to capture spoken language and convert it into text.
EMPATHY EXPERIENCE
To gain further insight and to better understand which are the problems what a person who is deaf or hard of hearing experiences every day I decided to conduct an empathy experience. For a few hours, I put myself in my user’s shoes and tried to experience life as if I was deaf. The experience taught me many things that I would have never learned otherwise. I was shocked when realizing how much information is perceived by our hearing, which we all often take for granted. From the sound of our alarm clock which wakes us up in the morning to the beeping of the microwave communicating to us that our breakfast burrito is ready. Hearing the quarter drop out from my wallet, realizing that my phone is not set on “quiet mode” in class, knowing that someone has entered my apartment, and being able to order my lunch from the drive-through.
CONCLUSION
From my current findings, I have learned that there is still a large divide between the deaf and the hearing communities within the workplace. People view individuals that are deaf less capable and independent compared to them. When it comes to a hiring process, companies fear that deaf individuals needs are too expensive to maintain and the process to gain certain services are to complicates to go through. Furthermore, the current existing services, although they help improve the lives of those who are deaf or hard of hearing, still do not solve the social division between the deaf and the hearing. A conversation naturally occurs between the direct interaction between two or more people. Current technological devices do not allow a natural conversation to take place because they shift the focus of the listener away from the individual speaking and towards the device.
For my senior thesis, I wish to develop a new communication system that uses already developed technological devices to translate sign language into speech and speech into sign language without disrupting the natural flow of conversation.
(4) Blanchfield BB, Feldman JJ, Dunbar JL, Gardner EN. The severely to profoundly hearing-impaired population in the United States: Prevalence estimates and demographics. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 2001;12:183-189.
(10) https://www.adweek.com/digital/how-marketing-through-voice-technology-will-put-savvy-brands-ahead-of-the-curve/
(11) http://www.motionsavvy.com/(12) https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertszczerba/2015/04/21/4-game-changing-technologies-for-the-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing/#76438827570a
(13) https://www.ava.me/
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