Social Question

talljasperman's avatar

How can blind people communicate with the deaf?

Asked by talljasperman (21919points) September 24th, 2010

it seems complicated…has it been done?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

13 Answers

Pandora's avatar

By computer
The same way a regular person can communicate.

iamthemob's avatar

Yes – Helen Keller.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

Just because something is complicated doesn’t mean humans haven’t figured out a way around it – we are resilient and adaptable.

downtide's avatar

There is a version of sign language that involves marking out letters on the palm of somene else’s hand.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

Braile (sp) for both.

talljasperman's avatar

@all what if a blind politician is on TV and the deaf person is using closed captioning or the reverse a deaf person signing and a blind person using described video…both require a third person to translate from the network

GeorgeGee's avatar

Here is a display screen for the blind:
http://www.medgadget.com/archives/img/siafu_low2.jpg
Pretty kewl, huh? Obviously the deaf have no problems sending email or using chat programs, and technology like this lets the blind do likewise.

Rhodentette's avatar

I imagine through an interpreter.

tallin32's avatar

I had a coworker that was deaf (still is, come to think of it—although not my coworker presently). We both worked in the Mobile and Embedded Devices department at Microsoft (please don’t blame us for the KIN!), and decided to see if we could actually pull off precisely what you described (up to this point, we’d just used corporate instant messaging). We ended up falling back on her ability to lip read, my ability to read fingerspelling providing I watched her hands, and passing a Pocket PC with a Notes window back and forth if nothing else worked. Oddly enough, I appear to have lost touch with her since we both left the Borg.

AnonymousWoman's avatar

This is a very interesting question. My father is blind and a lost deaf man came to our door because he was lost. My Dad answered the door and the deaf man tried to show him an address on a piece of paper. He could not see it. Eventually, the problem was noticed. He is lucky to have children who can help him out. :)

tallin32's avatar

About… twelve years ago, when I worked at Microsoft, I had a deaf colleague. We used IM and text and, for in person communication, she lip read and we passed a mobile phone with a notes application open back and forth. Interestingly enough, we were both on the Windows Mobile team, so access to mobile devices was not exactly an issue.

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