SMS for the Hearing Impaired

The deaf and hard-of-hearing community is estimated to be 10% of the world’s population and thus make up a sizeable populace with specific needs that operators and technologies have only recently begun to target in the past few years. Technology and software is being developed that will offer a fully adequate mobile experience for those hard of hearing. However, until these devices are both commercially and readily available, SMS messaging seems to be the most popular solution for the time being.

When the SMS messaging boom hit, the hard-of-hearing community made up one of the strongest facets of the movement. Text messaging allowed for a huge increase in mobility for the deaf population; almost the same mobility the cell phone offered people of standard hearing. Rather than having to wait for communication to occur using video messaging in the home or being forced to rely on expensive operator-based services, the ability to send short messages on the go was extremely liberating.

Unfortunately there are several drawbacks to SMS messaging that have been especially realized by the hard of hearing. Most service providers do no provide plans that exclude talk time, which might be unnecessary for the legally deaf. T-Mobile has assisted in beating this obstacle with its Sidekick mobile device. Deaf users can download free software to assist in communication in everyday situations. The service provider also offers an unlimited data and SMS messaging plan that lacks call time for an extremely low monthly fee. Websites including text4deaf have also begun to offer low monthly fees for unlimited texts.

Other downsides to text messaging that have been realized include the limited length of the messages and the difficulty in expressing emotion through a short mobile text. Future technologies will involve cameras and video to present real time images that allow the user to lip-read. Another software solution seeks to translate voice and present it in sign language on the mobile device’s screen. In addition, the USA has passed a law that requires all new release cell phones to be compatible with hearing aids by 2008. These advances should work in concert with SMS to aid in the hearing impaired communicability in the future.