HumanWare Communication Solutions for People who are Deaf-Blind (Source)
My name is Robin Pittman. I'm excited to welcome you all today to today's webinars with Humanware. We're hoping that today's content will be helpful to you. We're thrilled to have so many people logging on, so please just continue to login to the session while we take care of a few technical pieces of business. I want to let you know that there will be time at the end of the webinar for questions.
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This event will be recorded. We are recording now and it will be available tomorrow on the Perkins website if you'd like to share it with colleagues or just review some of the things that we go over today. Thanks for joining us, as always. We present these webinars on a fairly frequent basis so we like to do our best to make sure you're having a good experience.
It is my pleasure today to introduce Dominic Gagliano and Greg Stilson from Humanware. They will be sharing information about a solution for communication for individuals who are deaf. Please welcome Dominic and Greg.
Robin, thank you for the introduction. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you also to Perkins and Perkins Products for our invitation to do this presentation. We'll talk about a number of products for communication for people who are deafblind. I first want to introduce my colleague, Greg Stilson, who's sitting next to me on my right. Greg is our braille product specialist and will help with more of the technical demonstrations and really be doing most of the work this afternoon.
So we first want to start off with our product which is called the Deafblind Communicator-- many of you may be familiar with it-- known as the DBC. The DBC was introduced first in 2008 and we started development of that in 2006. It was really more of a modern, portable type of TeleBraille, TTY communication device that uses a landline or a telephone line often going through a relay station.
What's unique about the DBC is that it has the built-in telephone modem and it's used for communication. And TTY is really, really important for people who don't have an internet connection or a wireless connection, or may need to make an emergency phone call to the fire department or to their doctor where text messaging or an email may not be as immediate for them.
There are two models of the DBC. In our PowerPoint that we're showing there is a unit with a braille keyboard, which we call the BT, and then another one with a QWERTY keyboard or standard QWERTY keyboard. The other components that are on the DBC are also the companion phone, which Greg will be demonstrating shortly. And then also the modem with the TTY line. And then also any USB keyboard that can be attached to the BrailleNote via the USB port.
The keyboard is really useful when you're having a long conversation. And whether you're talking with a doctor, or a social worker, or counselor, or even a relative that may not be able to sign-- and in that particular case, the keyboard can be used rather than a touch pad. And the screen on the companion phone can be used for visually seeing what you're typing.
So what I'm going to do is just quickly demonstrate the actual devices themselves. We'll get into the functionality in a second. But what I'm holding in my hand right now is the BrailleNote, BT mPower. You'll notice that it's got 32 braille cells, it's got a Perkins style input keyboard. And then on the back, we'll get into in a second, but this is the TTY modem that Dominic was referencing earlier on where you can plug in an actual landline.
If Dominic want to hand me the QT model, we'll show that. Thank you, sir. This is basically the same style of device except for you see that it's got the QWERTY keyboard instead of the BT keyboard. So if you're more familiar being able to type on a standard keyboard, we do have a model for that.
And then the companion phone is your traditional cell phone style device. It's got a slide out QWERTY keyboard so that I can hand this to anyone and they would instantly know what to do with it. It's mainly used as a communication tool with the DBC, and we'll get into what that does here in a second. But I'll pass that back to Dominic.
So what really makes the DBC, or the Deafblind Communicator or the apex as we talk about, after the Deafblind Communicator is KeySoft's unique user interface. KeySoft is the software application program that runs on these devices and it's been around for really 25 years and we've had a great deal of success fine tuning it for blind users of really all ages.
It's a non-graphical interface with intuitive key commands. And so it's very easy to move through menus either using arrow keys or simply tapping the space bar. It doesn't require moving around the screen finding different icons, or obviously not using a mouse. It also has a email and internet application for non-computer users that is very simple and straightforward.
And one of the most important and unique features really-- thank you, Greg-- is the health system that we have that really helps people guide and remind them of the commands and options. I could use that help key right now. But the content sensitive help is really very, very important. And this also aids in the training process as well.
So again, to recap on the DBC, it has a built-in TTY telephone modem that does require an analog line. We can insert a SIM card into the companion phone, which will enable SMS or text messaging. We will demonstrate also for you the face to face communication.
And this is a very reliable Bluetooth connection to the phone and the BrailleNote because we're only connecting one device and we call it a static connection. And then KeySoft's interface, which is simple and intuitive.
And there are two different modes for the DBC. There's a basic mode, which only includes the chat, the TTY and the SMS, or you can change it to in advanced mode at no additional charge. And this would just depend on the level or skill level of the user. And by adding the advanced feature, then we add email and internet functionality along with word processing, and book reading, and scientific calculator, and many other applications which are part of KeySoft.
The DBC does have two models with the BT and the QWERTY keyboard-- 32 cells or 18 cells. And one of the questions that is often asked is which size is better for the user? Why is the larger braille display larger? And in my mind, I feel that a larger display offers more word content, less word wrapping, and also helps in fluency. Greg, you're the braille reader. What's your comment there?
Yeah. You know, I've been reading braille and I don't even know. Probably I was four years old or so. And, you know, it's a matter of preference. My personal opinion, I've been using a 32 cell braille display. Very similar to-- what I-- sorry about that. Very similar to what is in front of you right now.
The 32 cell braille display-- when you look on the bottom edge of the device, you have four thumb keys that allow you to advance the display x number of cells at a time. So in this case, it would be 32 cells at a time. And you think about it, if I cut this display in half or close to it to 18 cells, you'd have to be panning or pushing the display double the amount of time, double the effort. So my personal opinion is more braille on a line is better.
So the other point that we had there with the little check is that the DBC does not work with iOS devices. You cannot take an iOS or an iPhone and connect it to the DBC. You can, however, send a text message from the DBC to a person who has really any type of phone-- a smartphone or an iPhone. But you cannot pair the iOS phone with the DBC and use the DBC to read braille.
And then the pricing for the 32 cell is $8,239, and then the 18 cell is $6,379. That includes the DBC, the companion phone, the lanyard, the tether, and then also the USB keyboard.
So at this point, I think we're ready to demonstrate a little bit of what the DBC can do. Some of you may already be familiar with the process. What I have in my hands here is the BrailleNote mPower BT unit. Part of the DBC. And in Dominic's hands, he'll be utilizing-- and he just slides open the companion device.
The companion right now when used in face to face mode is simply a communication tool for the sighted person. So imagine that I'm at a coffee shop and I'm a deafblind individual and I want to order a cup of coffee. What I can do is--
Key chat menu.
I can turn on my device and it goes to the key chat menu. Remember we're using KeySoft, which is a very simple interface. So I press the space bar one time.
Face to face.
I hear Face To Face. That's the first option. And as soon as I press the Enter key, that companion device is going to kick in and we can zoom in and see exactly what Dominic is seeing.
And the phone has vibrated so I know that there's a communication and it's alerted to me. And it's also saying on the phone, Hi, I am deafblind. I can't see or hear. To communicate with me, please type a message and press Enter.
So immediately, Dominic already knows exactly what to do. So I can say to him--
Hello.
Hello. I would like to buy a coffee. OK? If I press the Enter key, we'll instantly see a response on Dominic's end. We hear the noise notifying that the sighted person that I've sent my message, they can see it on the screen. And now as he's typing, the far right cell on my braille display is pulsing, telling me that he's actually communicating back to me. That he's not ignoring me or whatever.
So at this point as soon as Dominic is finished, he's going to hit the Enter key. And he responded with, what size? And I can say, large please. At this point I can hit Enter. And you get the point. At this point, we're having a face to face conversation. And the whole-- the biggest benefit of doing this is that there was virtually no training for the sighted person at that point.
The last thing you want as a deafblind person in a conversation is that you have to spend 20 minutes trying to train the person that you're talking to how to actually communicate with you. And in this case, he responded do you want cream or sugar? We're not going to finish the whole conversation.
At this point now I can exit out of my conversation.
Exit. Close conver--
And remember, the content sensitive help that Dominic mentioned in the KeySoft interface, if at any point I forgot how to do an exit command or how to do a specific command, I could always press the Help command which is space with H on the braille keyboard, and it would tell me any useful command inside the application.
The benefit of that for training is that you don't have to have the manual open sitting next to you at all times. So at this point I can say, yes, I want to close.
Conversation closed.
And it's all closed. The screen goes blank on the companion device. And at that point, our conversation is finished. I could have also saved my conversation for a later time, et cetera, et cetera.
And as Dominic had mentioned as well as if we're having a longer conversation, rather than him texting for an hour on that little slide out QWERTY keyboard, we could hook up a big traditional QWERTY keyboard and we could communicate that way instead of him using the small QWERTY keyboard. So one more benefit there.
Going back to the Key Chat Menu. We had face to face in the list.
Face to face.
If I hit the space bar again--
TTY.
--we have TTY. Now, I'm not going to demonstrate TTY simply because we don't have a phone line that we can use. But if I needed to place a relay call or something along those lines, if I press the Enter key here--
Number?
--it just simply asks me for the phone number. I would type in my phone number and hit the Enter key. And at that point, it would automatically connect to the TTY connection and I could be speaking to a relay operator or whatever I wanted to do at that point to communicate with somebody who was a hearing person.
The last option--
TTY.
--after TTY is--
Start new conversation.
--to start a new conversation. And at this point, I would have the option to actually send a text message from the braille device to Dominic who has his own personal cell phone. And with that, I would be able to send him a traditional text message.
So let's say I want to send a text message to my kids or I want to send a text message to my boss if I'm running late. At this point, I can press Enter.
Chat with?
I can type Dominic's entire phone number here, or because I have him in my contact list, which the DBC has it's own built-in contact list just like any cell phone device. I can space bar through.
List of contacts.
It says list of contacts.
Dominic Gagliano.
And Dominic's my first contact. So I press the Enter key.
Start TTY or SMS conversation?
And it says do you want to start a TTY or an SMS conversation? I want to send Dominic a text, so I'm going to hit S for SMS.
Conversation started.
And I'm just going to send him a quick text. I'm going to say, hello.
Hello.
This is Greg. I will be late. And if I hit the Enter key, at that point my text message will come out. And presuming that we have cell phone reception in this room, Dominic will get a text message from my SIM card. Inside my DBC companion phone is a little SIM card that has a text messaging plan from a cell phone provider.
And in this case, Dominic would be able to get my text message, he'd be able to respond to it, and I would see it back on the braille display when he responded. So it's a very slick method of sending and receiving text messages really using that simple KeySoft user interface.
And it allows consumers to really connect with anybody around the world really. A relative in California or in Florida, and anybody that has a phone and text messaging rather than being tied down to a landline with the TTY.
Exactly. So we're taking it more mobile. So at this point, I think we can go ahead with the rest of the presentation.
So the DBC is really based on traditional TTY communication that is tied to a landline. However, there's a lot of new technology that happens and has happened recently. And there are more options for people who are deaf and blind and braille readers. And the Apex in itself as a standalone is a great tool for email and internet. And we talked about KeySoft and the simplicity and intuitiveness of that.
We also have braille displays in two different sizes that Greg will talk about that does pair with traditional Windows PC, Macs, and all different phones including the smartphone and the iPhone. And then we've offered a package which includes the Apex and the Brailliant braille displays with iPhones in particular. And that's what Greg is going to demonstrate next. He's actually going to talk about our braille displays here.
Absolutely. So we talked about the BrailleNote, and I'll get into the note taker concept in general. But right now what we're going to talk about are the traditional braille displays. In my hand right now-- if I can put them on top of each other without dropping them-- is a 40 cell and a 32 cell braille display. And I don't know if that's going to show correctly or not, but we'll see.
You can see that one is definitely larger than the other. I don't know if my hands are in the way or not. But in this case, we have a 32 cell and a 40 cell braille display. The benefits of these devices are that you can really connect to any PC, Mac, as Dominic said, iPhone, iOS device.
And as long as that device actually has a screen reader running and is driving the braille device, I can receive the output, the braille output from whatever the screen reader is saying to me. And I can also do braille input. So rather than typing on the QWERTY keyboard on my computer, I can use my-- if I'm a faster braillist I can input to the computer through my Perkins style keyboard.
Let me grab it again and go back to show you just the individual parts. You see on the front of it you have the eight Perkins keys on the front. You also have, in this case, this is a 32 cell braille display. If I tilt it like this, you see just how thin the device is. It's got four thumb keys on the front that allow you to pan the display forward by display length at a time.
And on either side you have the command keys. On either side of the display. And that's often used for navigation with screen readers, et cetera. For example, on the iOS devices, I can press an H with these command keys. That's one to five and it will take you to the home screen.
So just a quick overview of how the Brailliant looks and exactly what it can do. Like I said, it does work with USB or Bluetooth. But remember that the braille display must be used with some other device driving it.
OK. So just a little bit more about the Brailliant braille display. As I said, you can use them with the iOS devices. And that's a really big advantage, especially when it comes to inputting to these devices. You can imagine how difficult it is for myself-- I'm a blind individual-- to be able to find your keys on that touchscreen keyboard and be able to actually do it efficiently.
As a deaf blind individual, I have the capability to input much faster than traditional typing on that touchscreen keyboard. And at the same time, remember that you will get braille output as well while you're navigating the iOS device. It does require competent understanding of graphical user interfaces, et cetera because you are dealing with icons, and apps, and things like that. So it does require those for training.
I think we should talk about the iPhones that we're including with the package now.
Definitely. So iPhones from Humanware-- as Dominic mentioned, we're going forward with communication packages that really combine the best of both worlds. So we're having the braille devices from Humanware, the BrailleNote Apex or the Brailliant combined with the iOS device to really bring the cutting edge technology to really serve the communication needs of people who are deaf and blind.
And in this case, what we offer is, as I mentioned, a 32 cell or 40 cell Brailliant or a BrailleNote Apex combined with an apple iPhone that is unlocked with a GSM contract. And in the US, that's AT&T iPhone. What that does is it allows you to use your AT&T plan combined with a braille device with your iPhone and use it for communication. .
If you are a customer of Verizon or Sprint and you want to still use the braille device with the iPhone, you definitely can do that. You can get your phone on your own and combine it with a braille device from Humanware as well. If you do work with the packages or you do purchase a package, you will get the Humanware Communicator app, which we'll get to in a second, free of charge as well.
And the communicator package is face to face. Device that we'll demonstrate later.
Correct.
So the next package we're going to talk about, or Greg will really, is the Apex Communicator package. And the package consists of the BrailleNote BT keyboard, the iPhone 4S, the iPhone protective case, and Humanware's Communicator app for the iOS device, and then also a security lanyard, which actually is a case around the phone with a tether that allows you to stretch it when you hand it to an individual so they're not running away with your phone. Or if you drop the phone, you'll quickly be able to find it. And then there's also a Getting Started Guide in print and braille that we include. And then just remember that when you're pairing with the devices, the pairing always happens from the iPhone. So it does require a sighted person or a hearing person to see what's happening to pair with the braille device.
And the price is, then, on the Communicator Package, is the Apex 18 cell display with the phone package is $5,329. And the Apex 32 cell with the phone is $7,179.
And something to remember just to quickly mention with the Apexes, that we're using the Apex BT keyboard. Remember, this is not the QT model. We do have that model but, unfortunately, it's not supported by iOS devices being able to input with the full QWERTY keyboard. So the models that we're using right now are only the BT keyboard-- so the braille input keyboard.
And just quickly getting back to Dominic mentioning that the pairing must be done from the iOS device. That's a big difference between the communicator packages with the iOS device and the Deafblind Communicator. As Dominic mentioned, we have a static Bluetooth connection with the Deafblind Communicator, meaning that it's virtually impossible for it to become unpaired or disconnected, whereas Apple devices are able to pair with hundreds of different external tools-- Bluetooth headphones, keyboards, et cetera. So if that fragile connection become disconnected, at that point you will need a sighted or hearing person to assist in reconnecting those devices.
So the other package that we're going to talk about is very similar to the Apex package. Remember, the BrailleNote Apex is a standalone device by itself, but also functions as a braille display when connected to the iOS devices. So you can use its internal email and internet if you wanted to, but then connect it to the other devices to use as that communication package.
The Brailliant braille display is-- you have the option of a 32 or 40 cell. So you are looking at a little bit more portable option when you look at how small these devices are. You do have the capability to possibly carry these in a smaller bag, et cetera. And it's really ideal, like I said, for portability.
The difference is that if it is disconnected from the iOS device, you will-- this doesn't have a whole lot of internal functionality on its own. So you can utilize all the accessible communication capabilities from the iOS device. You can type emails using the braille keyboard on the device, you can respond to text messages using the iOS device. So there are a wealth of communications options from Apple devices and the different apps that are out there.
And then quickly going to what is part of the Brailliant Communicator package. Remember that it's very similar to what was with the BrailleNote Apex. You have the 32 or 40 so Brailliant, you have the iPhone 4S, you have the protective case and the lanyard so that people don't walk off with the phone, and that Humanware Communicator app will be included as well, along with the documentation.
So what is this Humanware Communicator app that we've been talking about? Well, it's been in the app store now for a couple of months and it is downloadable on any iOS device that you choose. When you're paired up with a BrailleNote Apex or a Humanware Brailliant, a Humanware braille device at that point, it basically facilitates that face to face conversation. And we try to make it as easy as possible.
You know, if you think about how many iPhones are out there now and how many people are familiar with iOS devices, there's going to be virtually no training required to teach somebody how to text message on an iPhone. Well, what we did is we utilized that familiarity and used it to our advantage because the last thing you want to do is try to train a sighted person how to communicate with you as a deafblind person.
So what we did is we have a traditional iPhone 4S-- I have one in front of me here. And I'm going to hand this phone to Dominic. It's running voiceover right now. And at this point, if you want to show the introduction screen, Dominic--
Sure. Hold this up?
What we have is you have a bunch of different options, and I can control this as the deafblind person from my braille display. I'm just using down arrow, up arrow commands from the braille display to cycle through them. What we have is New Conversation-- that will actually start the conversation. We can create a greeting, we can create commonly used phrases, we can save messages in the archive, and then there's obviously a user guide that you can read as well.
In this case, the whole goal is that I start a face to face conversation with Dominic being the sighted person. So what I'm going to do now is start that conversation just by selecting New Conversation. You hear the little chime noise. And Dominic, what does that say?
It says, Hi, I'm deaf and blind. Use this unit to communicate with me. Click OK if you understand. I think I can do that.
So Dominic clicks OK. And at this point now, using my braille device, all I'm going to do is type a message to Dominic. Let's just say, Hello, Dominic. Great to be here.
And I might add I'm seeing as he's typing, so it's actually a real-time conversation.
And now if I hit the send button, it will go up into the sent messages. It made a little noise. And at that point, did it vibrate as well, Dominic?
It did vibrate. Yes. And so it says, touch the box below to start typing. So I will send Greg a message and--
And now as he's typing, I'm seeing the device telling me that he's typing as well. So at this point, we have the capability that I'm actually seeing that communication is happening from his end. And at this point, he'll be able to touch the send button.
Here we go.
And at this point, now I see his message. Let's see how good of a-- he says the weather is good at Perkins. So you understand that at that point we had a face to face conversation. We could go back and forth and do it continuously. I can say yes, it is.
And at that point, as soon as Dominic touches that box on the top, he'll be able to text me back instantaneously. So we've already facilitated that face to face conversation without Dominic needing any additional training. He already knows how to use an iPhone, how to text message like that, and that's really all you have to do to work the Humanware Communicator.
And I think the face to face application is really great if an interpreter is not available, if you happen to be in the wrong place and you need assistance in getting to another room. It also allows private conversation. And it can be really used as a training tool as well with consumers.
So going on then. Wanted to talk about some of the resources that we have. And please feel free to visit our website site, which is humanware.com/deafblind. On this site we have all of our product brochures including a brochure that includes all of these products and the pricing, and the specifications of the products, training material, which we'll continue to add.
This PowerPoint will also be posted there if you'd like to have that for your own use, and archived webinars that we'll continue to add. Any questions that you'd like for either Greg or myself, please address them to info@humanware.com. And we also have an 800 number-- 800-722-3393. So thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. And we also welcome you to enter your questions now. We have a few minutes left to to directly address any questions that you have as you're thinking about them. I was wondering if the two of you could say a little bit more about the portability of the devices. You talked about kind of what comes with the sets. Could you talk a bit about maybe battery life, carrying cases, things like that that help?
One of the things that we've done on the Deafblind Communicator is offer a carrying case that is much like a computer bag. And it keeps all of the power charges, and the keyboard, and the phone, and everything all in one place. And for those of you who know the TeleBraille, it was really rather heavy, and it sat on your desk, and it needed to be plugged into a telephone line.
And so the DBC offers that portability to actually get out and travel and have a face to face communication. But we find that over the last six years, the text messaging and the email seem to be the most popular on the DBC right now rather than the TTY.
On the other devices, Greg-- and the battery life on the mPower, I think, is somewhere around 12 hours I believe.
On the newer devices, the BrailleNote Apex and the Brailliant, the Brailliant's battery life is very good-- up to 20 hours. And the BrailleNote Apex, you're looking at about an eight hour charge. Both of these devices do come with carrying cases as well. And as I mentioned, when you do purchase the Humanware Communicator package, you will get that iPhone carrying case with that retractable lanyard for your security.
That's right. And the braille displays also includes a carrying case with it.
We saw a lot of nice use of the iPhone and the iPad as also a similar device if someone wanted something larger.
Absolutely.
Yes. In fact, I have the face to face communication app on my iPad. So with a larger screen, bright contrast, and it's a really good tool.
Any other questions from the participants? You can just type them right into that Q&A box. We will pause a moment for that. As we've mentioned, these webinars are recorded and will be available on our website at perkinselearning.org usually within a day. And these can be a nice go to for not only refreshing yourself on the information presented here, but also for sharing with others. So you will be able to access that shortly.
If there are any other questions, then I will thank Greg and Dominic again for their time and for showing us how those things work. I think it always help to see them actually in hand and helps people remember a little bit more what you're talking about.
And just to mention that if you do want to try this out-- let's say you do have a Brailliant or an Apex and an iPhone, if you're having issues at all trying to hook them up together, our technical support team is very, very knowledgeable at doing this and they'd be more than happy to help you out as well. So feel free to give them a call if you're struggling with that.
Thank you. On behalf of Perkins School for the Blind and Perkins Products, we want to thank you both here, and thank all of you for attending. And let us know how we can continue to provide these sorts of webinars that are helpful to you. Have a nice afternoon.