First of all I haven't been all that active on here lately so some of you may not know of me. I use to be much more active here. So I'll just tell the basics of my "Story" so you know what kind of experiences I come from with deafness. I've always been HOH and wore hearing aids from the fourth grade till my late teens. At that time my hearing decreased to deafness. I was deaf for almost 20 years. I'm now 39 and just had my CI activated last December.
So now I can hear to some degree. I'm making phone calls and all that. But of course I still have hearing limitations. I still want those subtitles and so forth.
So I thought I'd share some of the apps I find most useful and helpful on my iphone. If you know of and use others please share them with us as well.
First of all I love the webcaptel on the iPhone. It's great for a sort of back up during phone calls. If I can't hear what they say I just glance at the screen and read it.
Of course we deaf, along with everyone else these days, do a lot of texting. On my old phone I used an app called SlidIT. Another version of this kind of app is called Swyrve. You might have seen it on-line or on some TV commercials. It's the keyboard for touch screens that allows you to type words by sliding your finger from letter to letter. Unfortunately the leading apps of this kind do not yet work on the iPhone. So the only alternative is an app called ShapeWriter. It actually works very well as far as typing the words. Just as good if not better than the other more known ones. But the downside is you cannot set this shapewriter keyboard as your default keyboard. It only works in the app. But with the paid version (about $7) you can use it to send emails and text messages.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOg91yfvZpo]YouTube - ShapeWriter iPhone App‎[/ame]
There's an app for subtitles called "Subtitles" that could at times come in handy. Imagine you are watching a show or movie on TV and it is not subtitled. With this app you can download the subtitles and play them on your phone. The subtitles will play like a video but no pictures. Just a black screen and the subtitles will appear on the screen in white text as they are timed to do. So you can play it along with the show or movie and read the subtitles on your phone screen. I know this isn't the best solution but I think it's worth sharing. There is a big problem with using it though. I wouldn't attempt to use it in a theater. When they see you holding the phone up they might think you're recording a video of the movie.
More about the "Subtitles" app here:
Subtitles for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
The Dragon Dictation app is a voice to text app. It's made by Dragon Naturally speaking and it's free. So it turns spoken speech into text. I've used this for two things. First, sometimes a friend is saying a word and I just can't pick it up. So I ask them to say it into my phone then read it.
The other thing I use it for is to practice improving my speech. I'll speak into it then find the words that didn't come out right and practice until the phone can recognize what I'm saying correctly. I know the technology isn't perfect yet but in all honesty it's actually pretty good considering it's working on a mobile device. And I do find that if I repeat a word and try to say it clearly it usually eventually places the right word on the screen.
Here's a video:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsge4iM-FTE]YouTube - Dragon Naturally Speaking iPhone App‎[/ame]
The next one comes with he iPhone. It's the simple voice and sound recorder. I find this useful in my "hearing training" since I got my CI. As I started to be able to hear more I'd hear sounds and not know what I'm hearing. For example I was outside and kept hearing a bird and wondered what kind f of bird it was. So I recorded it. I'd play it back for some friends and ask them if they knew.
Well, I just thought I'd share those with you all. I'm sure I'll find more and I'd love to try out any that you all suggest.
Ron Jaxon
So now I can hear to some degree. I'm making phone calls and all that. But of course I still have hearing limitations. I still want those subtitles and so forth.
So I thought I'd share some of the apps I find most useful and helpful on my iphone. If you know of and use others please share them with us as well.
First of all I love the webcaptel on the iPhone. It's great for a sort of back up during phone calls. If I can't hear what they say I just glance at the screen and read it.
Of course we deaf, along with everyone else these days, do a lot of texting. On my old phone I used an app called SlidIT. Another version of this kind of app is called Swyrve. You might have seen it on-line or on some TV commercials. It's the keyboard for touch screens that allows you to type words by sliding your finger from letter to letter. Unfortunately the leading apps of this kind do not yet work on the iPhone. So the only alternative is an app called ShapeWriter. It actually works very well as far as typing the words. Just as good if not better than the other more known ones. But the downside is you cannot set this shapewriter keyboard as your default keyboard. It only works in the app. But with the paid version (about $7) you can use it to send emails and text messages.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOg91yfvZpo]YouTube - ShapeWriter iPhone App‎[/ame]
There's an app for subtitles called "Subtitles" that could at times come in handy. Imagine you are watching a show or movie on TV and it is not subtitled. With this app you can download the subtitles and play them on your phone. The subtitles will play like a video but no pictures. Just a black screen and the subtitles will appear on the screen in white text as they are timed to do. So you can play it along with the show or movie and read the subtitles on your phone screen. I know this isn't the best solution but I think it's worth sharing. There is a big problem with using it though. I wouldn't attempt to use it in a theater. When they see you holding the phone up they might think you're recording a video of the movie.
More about the "Subtitles" app here:
Subtitles for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
The Dragon Dictation app is a voice to text app. It's made by Dragon Naturally speaking and it's free. So it turns spoken speech into text. I've used this for two things. First, sometimes a friend is saying a word and I just can't pick it up. So I ask them to say it into my phone then read it.
The other thing I use it for is to practice improving my speech. I'll speak into it then find the words that didn't come out right and practice until the phone can recognize what I'm saying correctly. I know the technology isn't perfect yet but in all honesty it's actually pretty good considering it's working on a mobile device. And I do find that if I repeat a word and try to say it clearly it usually eventually places the right word on the screen.
Here's a video:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsge4iM-FTE]YouTube - Dragon Naturally Speaking iPhone App‎[/ame]
The next one comes with he iPhone. It's the simple voice and sound recorder. I find this useful in my "hearing training" since I got my CI. As I started to be able to hear more I'd hear sounds and not know what I'm hearing. For example I was outside and kept hearing a bird and wondered what kind f of bird it was. So I recorded it. I'd play it back for some friends and ask them if they knew.
Well, I just thought I'd share those with you all. I'm sure I'll find more and I'd love to try out any that you all suggest.
Ron Jaxon