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ABC7Chicago.com: Organization aims to remove communication barriers for deaf
The demands for interpreting services for people who are deaf and hard of hearing continue to rise. There are a number of agencies in the Chicago area which provide communication services, but only one of them is owned by someone who is deaf.
Three years ago, Deaf Communication by Innovation was created to improve communicating between deaf and hearing people. Although their interpreting program is the most popular, there are other services that aim to remove communication barriers.
When DCI owner Raymond Rodgers was working as a social worker, he heard a lot of complains about interpreters and referral services, so he decided to do something about it.
"As a deaf person, I understand the needs of how deaf people work with interpreters," said Rodgers.
Since starting DCI, Raymond has experiences some challenges.
"There is always a high demand for more interpreters. We could use many more in the Chicagoland area over the past three years the number interpreters in the available pool has slowly increase but so has the demand for it quality interpreters it has not met," said Rodgers. "DCI fills about 95 percent our requests and we're very lucky in that regard."
In addition to interpreter referral services, they offer sign language classes and multimedia production of videos that are designed for deaf and hard of hearing audiences.
Their newest program is C-print captioning. This started at the National Technical Institute for the deaf in Rochester, New York
"They developed this software to be a combination of real time captioning meaning word for word transcription of what someone has said as well as being a note taking services for their deaf students. C-print doesn't take as much training for the captionist to become proficient as like court reporting does," said DCI coordinator David Bareford.
The C-print uses two laptops that are linked together. The deaf person has one and the captioner has the other one.
"One of the advantages of this system is if the deaf student has a question or a comment for the captionist, there's a small window that they can type that goes right to the captionist," said Bareford.
DCI will continue to provide the best source of communications. Just as long as it enables both deaf and hearing people to have communication access.
"I understand how that relationship works and I can better make that match," said Rodgers.
DCI interpreting services is also available on the internet. For more information, including fees, go to Deaf Communication by Innovation : Interpreting and Multimedia Services or call 773-857-7709 (voice) or 773-857-0913 (TTY).
The demands for interpreting services for people who are deaf and hard of hearing continue to rise. There are a number of agencies in the Chicago area which provide communication services, but only one of them is owned by someone who is deaf.
Three years ago, Deaf Communication by Innovation was created to improve communicating between deaf and hearing people. Although their interpreting program is the most popular, there are other services that aim to remove communication barriers.
When DCI owner Raymond Rodgers was working as a social worker, he heard a lot of complains about interpreters and referral services, so he decided to do something about it.
"As a deaf person, I understand the needs of how deaf people work with interpreters," said Rodgers.
Since starting DCI, Raymond has experiences some challenges.
"There is always a high demand for more interpreters. We could use many more in the Chicagoland area over the past three years the number interpreters in the available pool has slowly increase but so has the demand for it quality interpreters it has not met," said Rodgers. "DCI fills about 95 percent our requests and we're very lucky in that regard."
In addition to interpreter referral services, they offer sign language classes and multimedia production of videos that are designed for deaf and hard of hearing audiences.
Their newest program is C-print captioning. This started at the National Technical Institute for the deaf in Rochester, New York
"They developed this software to be a combination of real time captioning meaning word for word transcription of what someone has said as well as being a note taking services for their deaf students. C-print doesn't take as much training for the captionist to become proficient as like court reporting does," said DCI coordinator David Bareford.
The C-print uses two laptops that are linked together. The deaf person has one and the captioner has the other one.
"One of the advantages of this system is if the deaf student has a question or a comment for the captionist, there's a small window that they can type that goes right to the captionist," said Bareford.
DCI will continue to provide the best source of communications. Just as long as it enables both deaf and hearing people to have communication access.
"I understand how that relationship works and I can better make that match," said Rodgers.
DCI interpreting services is also available on the internet. For more information, including fees, go to Deaf Communication by Innovation : Interpreting and Multimedia Services or call 773-857-7709 (voice) or 773-857-0913 (TTY).