Apps for the Hearing Impaired and Deaf

---

Hey all, this is my first new thread outside of my home, the CDMA Hero forum, lol. Be kind

I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations, reviews, or information on apps or utilities that help the deaf or hearing impaired on Android?

The reason I'm asking is I'm trying to write up a guide or editorial on the state of Android's disabled-friendliness. Hoping to generate some good buzz on it and inspire people to keep developing unique ways of helping the disabled use their handsets more easily.

Anyway, thanks in advance and all that.

I've just installed XDANDROID to my AT&T Tilt2 (rhodium) and this is my very first foray into the android subforum so i'm now extremely curious to see what kind of stuffs can there be made for the deaf thanks to this thread gonna keep an eye on it!

P.S. would it be okay if i post suggestions as to what kind of apps or features that might be useful for the deaf or hearing impaired? i don't have many but what I do have, i would love to see. if only to see if there is already an apps for it.

Originally Posted by Deafcyclist

P.S. would it be okay if i post suggestions as to what kind of apps or features that might be useful for the deaf or hearing impaired? i don't have many but what I do have, i would love to see. if only to see if there is already an apps for it.

That would be fantastic. I'd really enjoy that kind of discussion.

I am not deaf myself but have a vested interest in any and all adaptation of Android to suit the disabled.
Recently an Android news site/community asked me to do some freelance op-ed writing for them and this is one of the topics I'd like to pursue, too.

If a discussion can start here and inspire some developers to create new apps/utilities to help the disabled then great! (=

phone fusion visual voice mail converts your voice mail to text message, if thats what kind of thing your looking for.

on the other side of that, handcent sms will read you your text message... neat thing when my girl checked the popup and accidently pressed that, we were both like wtf

the number one thing for the deaf with android phone that would be extremely useful is an android based ip-relay service. Currently Blackberry is on the top with this having 2 relay app for it (info linked below). Sidekick also have the same relay apps.

I've once had a Blackberry Pearl (8100) and this was absolutely essiental for the deaf person like me to be able to call for cab or order out or for any situation that would require me to be able to contact hearing.

ip-relay,
http://www.ip-relay.com/wireless.php

siprelay,
http://www.siprelay.com/mobile_solution.aspx

Other than this for the deaf, accessibility to messages is absolutely essential. I'm still looking around at the IM apps for android seeing i've just installed XDANDROID 2 days ago. Essentially what i'm trying to say is that deaf peoples requires IM applications even more than anybody else that I've known. And sometimes (like for windows mobile), it's hard to figure out which one is the best and worth the price. The simple solution to this is a side by side comparison for all of the mobile IM app for the android here. (i'm only mentioning this despite it's not being an app or feature request but it would really help peoples in general figure out which to get for their need).

The default txting setup on android seem more than good enough for the deaf anyway so that's no real worry.

Thanks, I hope to see good result out of this especially the relay app!

Good luck, Is_907!

Suggestions

---

Originally Posted by Deafcyclist

the number one thing for the deaf with android phone that would be extremely useful is an android based ip-relay service. Currently Blackberry is on the top with this having 2 relay app for it (info linked below). Sidekick also have the same relay apps.

I've once had a Blackberry Pearl (8100) and this was absolutely essiental for the deaf person like me to be able to call for cab or order out or for any situation that would require me to be able to contact hearing.

ip-relay,
http://www.ip-relay.com/wireless.php

siprelay,
http://www.siprelay.com/mobile_solution.aspx

Other than this for the deaf, accessibility to messages is absolutely essential. I'm still looking around at the IM apps for android seeing i've just installed XDANDROID 2 days ago. Essentially what i'm trying to say is that deaf peoples requires IM applications even more than anybody else that I've known. And sometimes (like for windows mobile), it's hard to figure out which one is the best and worth the price. The simple solution to this is a side by side comparison for all of the mobile IM app for the android here. (i'm only mentioning this despite it's not being an app or feature request but it would really help peoples in general figure out which to get for their need).

The default txting setup on android seem more than good enough for the deaf anyway so that's no real worry.

Thanks, I hope to see good result out of this especially the relay app!

Good luck, Is_907!

I am an ASL terp. I can understand the need for visual awareness. In my opinion one of the better apps is Handcent. LOTS of options. Google Voice is another good option to change voice to text.

Let me know if I can help any other way \!,,!

I actually had been wondering if any hearing impaired Android-fans were using GV for the voicemail transcriptions. Good to know it's been thought of already!

Oddly enough, I've never used Handcent. I'm going to have to go through it and see what features it has now. It's just interesting to put myself in the mindset of a user who can not use some of the features that I take for granted.


- What would all of you say is the best thing Android has for deaf users? (We've already talked a bit about this.)

- More importantly, what do you think is the worst thing about using an Android device, as a deaf or hearing impaired person?

On AndroidAndMe.com someone started a thread asking how to remove a lot of the audio-related software from Android. I thought that was a really interesting idea, and something worth writing a guide on how to do.
This guy wanted to remove the Music app, Amazon MP3, Dialer, and a few other things that absolutely required the user to be hearing.
He wanted to clear these things out to leave storage space for more useful applications and utilities. Really got me thinking.

@Deafcyclist and @softwaretech:
Would you two mind if I PMed or emailed you some interview-type questions on this topic?

Originally Posted by Is_907

@Deafcyclist and @softwaretech:
Would you two mind if I PMed or emailed you some interview-type questions on this topic?

No problem I go to Gallaudet University which is for the deaf. so I MIGHT be able to find out whether there's someone whose specialties is tech for the deaf and ask their opinions on this. Anything to help promote accessibility for the deaf and all other disability, i'm up for it!

Originally Posted by Is_907

I actually had been wondering if any hearing impaired Android-fans were using GV for the voicemail transcriptions. Good to know it's been thought of already!

Oddly enough, I've never used Handcent. I'm going to have to go through it and see what features it has now. It's just interesting to put myself in the mindset of a user who can not use some of the features that I take for granted.


- What would all of you say is the best thing Android has for deaf users? (We've already talked a bit about this.)

- More importantly, what do you think is the worst thing about using an Android device, as a deaf or hearing impaired person?

On AndroidAndMe.com someone started a thread asking how to remove a lot of the audio-related software from Android. I thought that was a really interesting idea, and something worth writing a guide on how to do.
This guy wanted to remove the Music app, Amazon MP3, Dialer, and a few other things that absolutely required the user to be hearing.
He wanted to clear these things out to leave storage space for more useful applications and utilities. Really got me thinking.

The best thing about android I can find so far is simply the open source aspect of it. simply because of this, we more able to remove certain unnecessary components from android (like the last portion of your post mentioned). Though absolute removal of ALL audio stuffs might not be optimal for all deaf since there are some like me who do enjoy listening to musics (classical and celtic is my fave) and sound effects like from games. so should some apps come out for this purpose of removing the audio stuffs, there should be several level of depths for this where the deepest removes everything and the basic only removes the phone related stuffs.

the worst thing about android is that there are very little apps available that can improve the usability of the phone for the deaf and that there are not really much info on IM programs for the android. I can't really find anything other than this since I have not really explored XDANDROID too deeply yet. DC snowstorms and college life is interfering with that, heh.

If you do find out about how to remove the phone portion of android for the deaf, maybe you could link it here so I could do the same and other's who may want to do the same could find it more easily via searches here?

Thanks!

P.S. I've signed up for GV but could never answer the videophone fast enough to input the password since i have to wait for a relay interpreter to connect first. is there any other way of activating my GV since I do have it, just not enabled?

@Deafcyclist that's so awesome, I ran tech (sound, ironically) for the play version of The Miracle Worker in college and we had a whole team of ASL interpreters, one shadowing each actor. During that production we had a lot of talks about the deaf community and how to make the play accessible for them. Gallaudet was mentioned quite a bit.

If you wouldn't mind finding someone there who specializes in tech that would be fantastic. It wouldn't surprise me if the university's IT department had resources or people specialized in this area.

So far all I've been able to find about Android for deaf users is stuff about data-only plans from cell carriers. (Btw, Sprint has the cheapest and easiest option. Surprised me.)

I haven't really found anything about apps or utilities designed for deaf users yet.