ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

A new iBook called Pointy Three includes built in American Sign Language (ASL) video narrations. Click here to download the iBook. Pointy Three costs $4.99 but you can download a sample for free. It is the first iBook to include ASL video narrations. An iPad is required to read the ebook. These video narrations are great for people learning ASL or parents of deaf children. Hopefully, the selection of ebooks with ASL narration will increase.

Watch the above video to learn more. Click read more below to view screenshots of Pointy Three.

For the millions of deaf people communicating is a large challenge. EnableTalk is attempting to solve this problem with a pair of computerized gloves that recognizes sign language and uses text-to-speech to convert the signs to spoken language. Watch the above video to learn more. The prototype gloves link with a smart phone and use a variety of sensors to recognized the signs. An app on the users smart phone then speaks the signs using text-to-speech so people who do not know sign language can communicate with the deaf user. The gloves could end the need for a sign language user to pass notes to non-sign language user, but the non-sign language user would still need to pass notes back to the hearing impaired person. The EnableTalk seem promising and will hopefully be available to consumers in the near future. Click read more below to view a picture of the prototype gloves.

Skype, the most popular video chat service just released a Skype for iPad. The app supports video calls on the iPad 2 over Wi-Fi and 3G data. To download the app click here. With Skype you can chat with other users using many other devices. Skype supports iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Windows and Mac OS X. The Skype calls are free but data rates do apply while using 3G. Video chat services such as Skype are useful for people who are are deaf. Deaf users of Skype can sign within the video chat in order to communicate. With more video chat options communication between users is becoming easier for all users.

Besides Skype there are many other options for video chat. Facebook recently announced video calling from within the Facebook site. Apple also has FaceTime for users of its iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th generation and Mac computers. FaceTime will be able to work over 3G in iOS 5 which is coming out this fall. Click here to learn more about iOS 5.

With new options for video chatting, remote communication is becoming easier for deaf users. Click read more below to see a video of Facebook video chat and FaceTime.

FaceTime