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Touring group promotes new device for deaf | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle
A nonprofit organization and a high-tech company have paired up for a seven-week, 30-state tour that started in Rochester on Tuesday.
The nonprofit DeafNation advocates for the deaf, promotes awareness of deaf issues and operates a Web site with information and resources of special interest to the deaf community. The company, Viable Inc., makes the V-Pad video phone, especially useful to the deaf community.
The group of six deaf people made their first stop at Rochester School for the Deaf, 1545 St. Paul Blvd., where they met with students and got a tour of the campus from Superintendent and CEO Harold Mowl.
The touring crew took pictures, recorded video and jotted down notes for use on the DeafNation Web site, where the trip will be logged.
The Web site will chronicle their visits to schools, deaf-owned businesses, organizations and communities.
The tour also will demonstrate Viable's new V-Pad video phone.
The V-Pad, which has been on the market since January, has a built-in camera and a screen where the user can see the person they're calling so they can communicate with sign language. If the user is communicating with a hearing person, the device automatically ties in to an interpreter.
Through an interpreter, Mowl said that video phones "have become a very important part of (deaf people's) lives."
"It's a much faster way to keep in touch with ourselves and the hearing world.
"In the past, we'd just be typing and typing and now we can sign and it's much quicker," Mowl said.
A nonprofit organization and a high-tech company have paired up for a seven-week, 30-state tour that started in Rochester on Tuesday.
The nonprofit DeafNation advocates for the deaf, promotes awareness of deaf issues and operates a Web site with information and resources of special interest to the deaf community. The company, Viable Inc., makes the V-Pad video phone, especially useful to the deaf community.
The group of six deaf people made their first stop at Rochester School for the Deaf, 1545 St. Paul Blvd., where they met with students and got a tour of the campus from Superintendent and CEO Harold Mowl.
The touring crew took pictures, recorded video and jotted down notes for use on the DeafNation Web site, where the trip will be logged.
The Web site will chronicle their visits to schools, deaf-owned businesses, organizations and communities.
The tour also will demonstrate Viable's new V-Pad video phone.
The V-Pad, which has been on the market since January, has a built-in camera and a screen where the user can see the person they're calling so they can communicate with sign language. If the user is communicating with a hearing person, the device automatically ties in to an interpreter.
Through an interpreter, Mowl said that video phones "have become a very important part of (deaf people's) lives."
"It's a much faster way to keep in touch with ourselves and the hearing world.
"In the past, we'd just be typing and typing and now we can sign and it's much quicker," Mowl said.