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The Marietta Times: Video phones help deaf, hearing impaired communicate
For years, Sam Wilder’s 86-year-old uncle in Colorado Springs, Colo., didn’t want to come to the phone when he called, not wanting to type his conversation into the teletypewriter commonly used by the deaf.
But when Wilder called his uncle Ed Thursday morning, from his classroom at Warren High School, he answered right away and within seconds he and his nephew were signing to each other, with a clear view of the other on a TV screen.
“Every time I used to call he wouldn’t want to get on the TTY and it would be my aunt Rosanna talking to me,” said Wilder, who teaches American Sign Language at Warren. “Now every time I call he’s right there and he wants to see me and he wants to talk.”
Video phones — provided for free for hearing impaired, deaf and family members by Sorenson Communications — have opened up the world of communication for those who can’t hear and now there are four being used in Washington County. The phones are at Warren High School, in the Frontier district, at the Marietta branch of the Washington County Public Library and at a private home.
All that’s needed to use the system is a video phone, television screen and high-speed Internet connection.
“Rosanna has friends in Indiana, California and Michigan that she talks to almost every day,” signed Ed Wilder Thursday. “We use it a lot.”
The video phone uses a relay system for a hearing person to talk to a deaf person or just the video screen with no interpreter when two non-hearing people are talking.
To use the relay, a hearing person can call a number, wait for an interpreter and then talk to the interpreter who signs to the call recipient on the video screen. The caller can also see the interpreter on the screen, along with the person they called.
“TTY was not that great with relay,” signed Rosanna Wilder during a video phone call Thursday. “This is exact — it’s perfect. You can see the interpreter so it’s like person-to-person which is so much better.”
The video phone system allows a discussion to be much more conversational, said Sam Wilder. The TTY system uses a basic keyboard along with the keys SK (stop keying) and GA (go ahead) to indicate what the other person should do.
“The video phone is much more personal,” he said. “And for a lot of deaf people, American Sign Language is their first language and English is hard for them so typing was hard. This uses their language.”
Wilder, whose parents were both deaf, began inquiring last spring about getting a video phone at Warren High and had the phone put installed in August.
“Starting next week if students are going to be absent they have to call the relay system to let me know,” he said. “Then my Level Three students will be in charge of answering the phone so they’ll be signing to the operator.”
The students were amazed when they first got to use the phone, Wilder said.
“They love the technology,” he said. “And I wanted my students to be able to be in touch with deaf people.”
Warren High junior Beth Reed, 16, had her first conversation with Ed and Rosanna Wilder Thursday, sharing laughs and signs with the couple via the video screen.
“I really like it,” said Reed, who is in her third year of learning sign language. “It reminds me of talking to people on computers that you can see but it’s a lot clearer.”
Reed said she hopes to use the video phone to communicate with a deaf friend when it’s not in use for class.
Wilder said other students have already begun making use of the video phone at the Washington County Public Library.
He’ll hold a meeting there at 7 p.m. Wednesday to show people how to use the phone.
“It’s a great service that the library can provide to the deaf community,” he said. “They can communicate with friends and family face to face. There’s not a large number of deaf people in the area but there are people here who have deaf friends and family members they want to talk to.”
Washington County Public Library Director Justin Mayo said in the last week three or four people have used the phone, before the library has publicized that it’s there. It was installed Sept. 13.
“They seem to like having it available after the school is closed,” he said. “And I’m for anything that helps the community.”
Mayo said he’s already in discussions to get a video phone at the Barlow branch of the library and the Belpre branch is being considered, too.
“We’d like to get one in at least one other location,” he said. “And right now there would be technology and space issues in Beverly and New Matamoras.”
Students at Warren High School will also be using their phone at to talk to senior citizens at the Columbus Colony, an independent living center and nursing home for the deaf and blind.
Each student will be assigned to a resident there and will communicate at least once a month, said Wilder.
“It will give my students some practice and experience,” he said. “And it will give some of the older folks someone to talk to.”
In the six years that American Sign Language has been taught at the school, it’s become part of the culture there, not just a class, said Wilder.
“Students sign to me outside of class all the time,” he said. “I just walked by a classroom and a student signed ‘Hi, how are you.’”
Students have been slightly intimidated by the phones when they begin using them, but it hasn’t taken long for them to use them as naturally as they would a telephone, Wilder said.
“They’re a little bit shy initially about trying to sign and they feel strange essentially signing to a camera,” he said. “But once they do it they just really take off. It’s been great to see.”
For years, Sam Wilder’s 86-year-old uncle in Colorado Springs, Colo., didn’t want to come to the phone when he called, not wanting to type his conversation into the teletypewriter commonly used by the deaf.
But when Wilder called his uncle Ed Thursday morning, from his classroom at Warren High School, he answered right away and within seconds he and his nephew were signing to each other, with a clear view of the other on a TV screen.
“Every time I used to call he wouldn’t want to get on the TTY and it would be my aunt Rosanna talking to me,” said Wilder, who teaches American Sign Language at Warren. “Now every time I call he’s right there and he wants to see me and he wants to talk.”
Video phones — provided for free for hearing impaired, deaf and family members by Sorenson Communications — have opened up the world of communication for those who can’t hear and now there are four being used in Washington County. The phones are at Warren High School, in the Frontier district, at the Marietta branch of the Washington County Public Library and at a private home.
All that’s needed to use the system is a video phone, television screen and high-speed Internet connection.
“Rosanna has friends in Indiana, California and Michigan that she talks to almost every day,” signed Ed Wilder Thursday. “We use it a lot.”
The video phone uses a relay system for a hearing person to talk to a deaf person or just the video screen with no interpreter when two non-hearing people are talking.
To use the relay, a hearing person can call a number, wait for an interpreter and then talk to the interpreter who signs to the call recipient on the video screen. The caller can also see the interpreter on the screen, along with the person they called.
“TTY was not that great with relay,” signed Rosanna Wilder during a video phone call Thursday. “This is exact — it’s perfect. You can see the interpreter so it’s like person-to-person which is so much better.”
The video phone system allows a discussion to be much more conversational, said Sam Wilder. The TTY system uses a basic keyboard along with the keys SK (stop keying) and GA (go ahead) to indicate what the other person should do.
“The video phone is much more personal,” he said. “And for a lot of deaf people, American Sign Language is their first language and English is hard for them so typing was hard. This uses their language.”
Wilder, whose parents were both deaf, began inquiring last spring about getting a video phone at Warren High and had the phone put installed in August.
“Starting next week if students are going to be absent they have to call the relay system to let me know,” he said. “Then my Level Three students will be in charge of answering the phone so they’ll be signing to the operator.”
The students were amazed when they first got to use the phone, Wilder said.
“They love the technology,” he said. “And I wanted my students to be able to be in touch with deaf people.”
Warren High junior Beth Reed, 16, had her first conversation with Ed and Rosanna Wilder Thursday, sharing laughs and signs with the couple via the video screen.
“I really like it,” said Reed, who is in her third year of learning sign language. “It reminds me of talking to people on computers that you can see but it’s a lot clearer.”
Reed said she hopes to use the video phone to communicate with a deaf friend when it’s not in use for class.
Wilder said other students have already begun making use of the video phone at the Washington County Public Library.
He’ll hold a meeting there at 7 p.m. Wednesday to show people how to use the phone.
“It’s a great service that the library can provide to the deaf community,” he said. “They can communicate with friends and family face to face. There’s not a large number of deaf people in the area but there are people here who have deaf friends and family members they want to talk to.”
Washington County Public Library Director Justin Mayo said in the last week three or four people have used the phone, before the library has publicized that it’s there. It was installed Sept. 13.
“They seem to like having it available after the school is closed,” he said. “And I’m for anything that helps the community.”
Mayo said he’s already in discussions to get a video phone at the Barlow branch of the library and the Belpre branch is being considered, too.
“We’d like to get one in at least one other location,” he said. “And right now there would be technology and space issues in Beverly and New Matamoras.”
Students at Warren High School will also be using their phone at to talk to senior citizens at the Columbus Colony, an independent living center and nursing home for the deaf and blind.
Each student will be assigned to a resident there and will communicate at least once a month, said Wilder.
“It will give my students some practice and experience,” he said. “And it will give some of the older folks someone to talk to.”
In the six years that American Sign Language has been taught at the school, it’s become part of the culture there, not just a class, said Wilder.
“Students sign to me outside of class all the time,” he said. “I just walked by a classroom and a student signed ‘Hi, how are you.’”
Students have been slightly intimidated by the phones when they begin using them, but it hasn’t taken long for them to use them as naturally as they would a telephone, Wilder said.
“They’re a little bit shy initially about trying to sign and they feel strange essentially signing to a camera,” he said. “But once they do it they just really take off. It’s been great to see.”