WEBVTT

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Bryan: Honestly, for me

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without assistive technology,
my life would be very isolated.

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I couldn't do my job.

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I wouldn't have an active personal life.

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I'd be in a dark place
without assistive technology to help me.

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[music plays]

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Bryan: It's hard to describe in one word,

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but it would have a huge impact on me,

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and all DeafBlind community members lives.

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In our work lives for example,
the ability to zoom on the screen

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or to use a screen reader means
we can read our emails.

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On a personal level,
I use it for lighting and cooking,

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adjusting the lights
so that I can read books.

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There are countless ways
that I use technology at home.

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Chris: At my previous job,

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before I came to Helen Keller,

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I was a teacher

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and I worked at a school for the deaf.

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Without assistive technology,

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I would not have been able
to teach very well.

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While I possessed the necessary skills
in order to be a good teacher,

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and while I had the capability
to be a good teacher,

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my vision and hearing loss
prevented me from doing so.

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However, assistive technology
allowed me to get through those obstacles.

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I also use some simple
low-tech devices as well.

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For example, I was able to use tinted
plastic reading sheets.

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I could clip the plastic
sheets on top of the paper,

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flip it over,

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and now I had the option of using blue,
pink, green, or yellow

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as an overlay on the white paper.

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White paper gives off such a glare,
but with the colored overlays,

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I could read it very easily.
I have a lot of those examples

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and each of them contributed
to my success as a teacher.

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They created an equitable environment
where I was on par with the deaf

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and hearing teachers who were teaching
deaf children at the school.

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What I'm getting at by telling that story

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is that assistive technology

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helps us achieve equity and levels
the playing field.

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Scott: The large majority of
the things that I want to do

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I can do through technology.

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And without technology,
there are a lot of things

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I cannot do as independently as I want.

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Even through social
media, things like Facebook,

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apps like Nextdoor.

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Nextdoor is an app
that allows you to connect to other people

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in your neighborhood.
And I'm able to use that

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and I get information about
what's going on in my neighborhood.

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So again, it comes back to

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now I have equal access to the information,
equal access to communication,

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and I'm able to be
the person that I want to be.

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I don't have to sacrifice many things

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because I can’t have a phone conversation

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or I can’t interact with somebody through text.

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I feel like I'm actually part
of the world I live in.

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And that wasn't the case back in the late

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90s and early 2000s
when my hearing started dropping.

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And I was already completely blind.

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I felt very alone and very left out.

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So, technology,

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thank you, thank you, thank you.

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I now feel like I'm more of a full person again.

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Chris: You mentioned Nextdoor,

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and I'm laughing a little bit

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because I too use Nextdoor.

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I'm also the administrator

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for one Nextdoor page.

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I doubt any of the members
know that I am DeafBlind,

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but who cares? We're too busy
sharing information on that page,

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so it's just another
example of equitable access.

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[music plays]

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Chris: What has DeafBlind assistive technology
looked like through the decades

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in the fifties, sixties and seventies
and on through today?

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Scott, you're laughing.

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Do you want to answer that, please?

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Scott: There really wasn't a lot of things
available for people who are DeafBlind.

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Back in the fifties,
radio was a big thing.

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That's how everybody got their news,
turning on the radio.

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Well, DeafBlind people didn't have that.
If you can't hear it,

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that's pretty worthless.

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Same with TV.

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If you're completely blind
and completely deaf,

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it's just a piece of junk as far as you're
concerned, because you can't see it,

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you can't hear it.

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So that's kind of where we came from.

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Back in the fifties
and even into the sixties,

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there was really no reliable
way, even for DeafBlind people,

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to access the phone system,
which prior to the internet,

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that was a primary means
of communication.

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It was a very challenging time,
which is why I say

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it's great to be alive now, to
experience all this communication

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Bapin: Years ago when I was
first learning braille,

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I learned how to type

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using a manual typewriter back then,

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but I couldn't see

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if I made a mistake,

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so I couldn't edit the letters.

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So I used to type
very carefully and slowly

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to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.

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If I did inadvertently make a mistake,

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I would tear the paper out
and start all over again.

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Then one year later, I was 13,

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I finally got my first electric device

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that was called the Versabraille.

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It was similar to what blind people used
when they recorded on cassette tapes.

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They could use it
to listen to books on tape,

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But I would use the Versabraille
cassette tapes to store information.

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For example, I would take notes or

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write up a document.
I was really excited that I was able

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to read it back and edit any mistakes.

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One negative was the weight.

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It weighed about 20 pounds
and it was awkward to carry around.

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The devices we use now
have become smaller and smaller.

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nothing is the 20 pounds of years
ago. Now our devices are

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as light as a pound or less

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and that includes both my iPhone
and the braille display.

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So times have changed.

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Scott: I believe it was
in the sixties when teletype

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or TTY

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was implemented into the phone system.

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And what that meant was

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they could have an interpreter

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send digital beeps

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but the random beeps
is what they sound like.

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It's actually high-paced Morse Code,
but they can send that through the phone lines,

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And so deaf people, they were
able to communicate

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back and forth with one another by typing.

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And they would have
very long conversations.

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I'm sure many of them, for the first time.

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I believe it was in the 70s or 80s...

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Yeah, probably in
the early to mid 80s

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when they finally came out with a device
that also included a small Braille display.

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So now for the first time,

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DeafBlind people were able to
also access the phone system.

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That really opened up a lot of doors.

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Chris: In the past, we had to make do
with what was available.

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Scott shared a little bit about that,
as well as Bapin and his experiences.

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Today we have a host of options
available to us, which is wonderful,

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and it's been wonderful to see
the evolution of assistive technology.

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[music ends]