For the Hearing Impaired

[chicagofred]

I'm profoundly deaf. This means I'm pretty close to total deafness. I still use the phone but I'm very limited. It depends a great deal on the person on the other end: diction, grammer, good will.

 

Tools I could use and have used in other programmes:

 

One of the tools I developed when in college was the ability to have someone spell their name to me buy the phones buttons. I worked out a fast and simple method to select one of the three (or four) letters on the keys. My receiver would simple list the letter sellected and in this way I was able to secure the correct spelling. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to ask someone to repleat themselves without this feature.

 

I love the way I can pull up WavePad to manipulate the message until I can understand it. Great.

 

Another tool I use is voice relay. I type to a relay opererator and they speak to the person. That person speaks back and the operator types back to me. How nice it would be to have this option embedded in IVM. There are a few services out there and IVM would simply splice into them. No heavy overhead at all on IVM.

 

Another feature similar to the first above is to enable the person who is leaving a message to type their name. It wouldl show up as a text when I click on the message to play it back.

 

I have a few more. But it would be nice is people here who are suffering from one sort of deafness or another could show some interest.

 

As a side note: I did contact NCH by email a couple a days ago requesting confirmation on a couple of questions I had and to express me happiness in finding a product that would help me reather than hinder me. I was promised a reply in 24 hrs. It's been two days now... no reply. Oh well.