Deaf and hard of hearing callers can now use VRS through FaceTime

Meeting people on the app their family already uses removes one more "download this first."

ZP Connect, a communication access company founded by and for the Deaf community, announced on Oct. 29 that it is the first company to offer Video Relay Service on FaceTime video calling. Starting Friday, Oct. 30, at 6 a.m. Central, ZP Connect customers can place VRS calls through FaceTime, bringing a sign language interpreter into conversations with hearing family members, friends and colleagues. The company says the move expands communication access "at home, at work, and in our communities."

I love when access shows up inside the tools people already have in their hand. When a Deaf person can reach a hearing relative, a job coach or a doctor's office through a familiar call, there is one less barrier and one less app to learn.

It also took me back. We did it one time with one skill for Amazon. I wanted to show how to show products, but there was a skill in there to wake it with gestures, which could be sign language.

I want to see more technology tools that have the ability to wake, not with a voice command but with a sign language command. I'm thinking about how that also works with waking Meta devices with gestures and non-traditional, non-verbal prompts, like the smart glasses, Meta glasses, Google glasses, whatever.

I am also curious about what comes next. How will people find out this is available? How does it feel on the hearing side when an interpreter joins a FaceTime call for the first time? And for direct support professionals who help someone schedule appointments or stay in touch with family, is this something we are ready to support, or will we need training to make it smooth?

Tech Equity

ZP’s announcement introduces this option for its customers. What does access look like for someone using Android, a shared tablet or no smartphone? The release also does not say whether other VRS providers will follow. Real choice means a Deaf person can pick the provider and the device that fit their life.

I really want to see how technology can unlock people's ability to develop more relationships and be understood without traditional words. From my experience working with people with severe communication barriers, not everybody but a lot of people, who don't use formalized or traditional words to speak, I know that they have something to say and something to communicate.

It's just that we have to find the unlock.

Source: zpconnect.com