New Video Conferencing & Phone possibilities...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 12, 2004

Dear SW List Members...
The last two weeks have been amazing. So many new ideas are written to
me privately that my head is spinning! Let me share some new ideas with
you...And I really need your feedback!

The first is video conferencing, or one-on-one video telephones....

This is something fairly new. The other day I was really surprised! I
got a telephone call from the Relay Service....here in the United
States that is the name of our telephone operator system for Deaf and
hearing conversations...In the old days, usually the Deaf person typed
on a TTY (tele-typewriter), and then a hearing operator would read the
messages to the hearing person on the other end...

But this telephone call, from Kevin Clark, one of our DAC members, was
on the new VIDEO Relay Service. The hearing operator called me on my
voice phone, and told me that she was going to sign what I say, as if I
had an interpreter right with me at my desk...Imagine that! Kevin was
signing and did not have to bother typing on a TTY!

I have a feeling that TTYs will soon be out of date...and the issues of
typing English glosses on TTYs will be gone, because true ASL can be
used for the first time directly, without any writing system, just as
hearing people speak in their spoken languages, directly on the voice
phone...without writing anything.

The historic implications are great for this...and this is actually a
help for SignWriting in many ways. If nothing more, we start seeing
each other face to face! I will have to get dressed when I am at the
computer - ha! I work out of my house, so I guess I will have to neaten
my office - grin... But I don't have to worry about combing my hair-
because I am bald from illness - ha! But all that is good...it would be
like a visitor here, joining me for an hour's chat...

Some of the other good points...We could start teaching SignWriting
visually to students over the VIDEO phone! And there are many
more...can you think of some other benefits?...

So I am considering trying to write a tiny grant for funding to
purchase the equipment on my end...and I need to know now...what
equipment should I ask for in the grant?

Val ;-)


Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

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