Deaf-Blind Awareness Week

[Rahul001]

cover image of deafblind awareness week poster

This week ( June 23rd - June 30th ) is seen as a deaf blind awareness week. Awareness week is in the last week of June every year. This week was formerly known as Helen Keller deaf blind awareness week and now into International deaf blind awareness week. International deafblind day is on June 27th as it was Helen Kellen’s Birthday. This week is for awareness and to see how life is like for those who are deafblind, what challenges they face and achievements they get.

Google does help me to understand how we can help for those who are deafblind with features like live transcribe, assertive hearing loop and Google lens. Programs like Crowdsource really helped the community to know more about how Google lens and live transcribe helps in for those who are deafblind.

There’s app that has been put forward for accessibility ( for those who are deafblind)

• Live transcribe.
• Sound amplifier.
• Android Accessibility suite.
• Google lens.

There’s phone settings that can be changed which suit those who are deafblind.

• Live captions
• Sound notifications
• Real time text ( where you can text in real time when you are on call).
• Select to speak

How Google maps help for those who are deaf

screenshot of edit feature of accessibility in shop/business profile’s about section

In Google maps

• Go to a shop/business profile.
• Check their “About” section.
• You can see features that the shop provides with accessibility.
• In there, you can see “Assistive hearing loop” when you click the edit features and go to the accessibility section.

Hearing loop is a type of sound system that has been used by people with hearing aids. It uses magnetic and wireless signals which get picked up by hearing aids when set to “T” ( telecoil) setting. It is a widely used and popular Assistive listening technology which can connect to a wide range of hearing aids directly.

How Google maps helps for those who are blind

screenshot of google map settings and navigation settings

In Google maps,

• Go to the map settings.
• Click on the navigation settings.
• At the bottom, you can see “ detailed voice guidance”.
• By enabling it, audio announcements from Google maps will be frequent and detailed during the navigation or walking.

Icons used for those who are deaf ( using hearing aids ) and blind

icons that shows that area is using assistive hearing loop [ T ] and those who are blind

If you came to know any other features related to this week from Google or Maps, please let me know through comments.

Please don’t mind to correct if I miss or made a mistake on writing this post

Also please upload in comments any Accessibility ( related to deaf and blind ) symbol/icons in your local area.

@TravellerG @AjitThite @Gurukrishnapriya @TusharSuradkar @Betajayakumar

[TravellerG]

Excellent, dear @Rahul001

Very well thought out topic, well drafted and nicely presented.

Appreciate your efforts and dedication…

Congratulations!

Extremely valuable post.

I’m tagging our dear @Tejal who also has good knowledge and equal interest - dear Tejal kindly add your thoughts, please.

Most sincerely with regards,

[Gurukrishnapriya]

A very informative post @Rahul001 . Thanks for sharing and also for tagging me. Those icons are for Deaf and Blind helps to understand better about Accessibility features. Hereafter I will try to incorporate these in my reviews.

[Izumi]

とても興味深い投稿をありがとうございます。

視覚障害と聴覚障害者の為のアイコンは日本のそれとは異なることに私は驚きました。 このマークの様に国際的に統一されたマークはあるのでしょうか?

町田駅 付近で対応するマークを探してみました。

電柱に取り付けられた白い金属の箱に視覚障害者用を表す青いマークと、音響用の赤いボタンが付けられている。

写真１ これは横断歩道の信号機が青に変わっている間、鳩時計の様な音を鳴らす為の装置です。信号機が赤の時はピーピーという小さな音が鳴っていてボタンの位置を視覚障害者に教えています。

写真２ 銀行入口のガラスに貼られたステッカーには犬の横顔と補助犬WELCOME、盲導犬､介助犬､聴導犬の文字が書かれている。

写真 ３ ガラスに６枚貼られたステッカー。左上から時計回りに段差解消、聴覚障害者の為に筆談で応対する窓口がある､補助犬を連れて入館可能、AED機器あり､車椅子用トイレあり、視覚障害者が利用するために銀行員と通話できる受話器が付いたATMをそれぞれ知らせています。

十年くらい前までは「盲導犬同伴可」を表す別のステッカーが貼られていたと私は記憶してますが、聴導犬や介助犬なども人々に認知されてきたのでそれらをまとめて「補助犬同伴可能」のステッカーに変更されたようです。

また今回撮影はできませんでしたが、東京都の南に位置する神奈川県 を走る神奈川中央交通のバスの運転席付近には、聴覚障害者向けに「筆談で応対できます」とメッセージが貼られていました。

参考写真:神奈川中央交通バス

バス停で停車している神奈中バス、一般車両に停車位置を避けるように知らせる「バス停」の文字が道路に印字されています。

@Rahul001

これらについてあなたがどう思ったか、お知らせください。

[Rahul001]

Thank you @Izumi for your valuable comment. What you posted is the international sign for those who are blind. What I post is seen in hospitals around my area / state. It’s good to see even bus stop is seen as accessible by different type of people. I have a doubt, does the bus stop in your area have “Assistive hearing loop” for tourists?

[KattyGeltmeyer]

Another app that’s a helpfull app for the blind is “lookout by Google”. By contributing to the crowdsource project (smart camera and handwriting related tasks, for just naming several options), you train the ai behind lookout by google and lens etc. and you let the blind see through your eyes. I’m not sure if deaf blind people would have any profit from lookout by google, as the info is spoken aloud. But you for sure can try out this lookout by google app for yourself and find out what it can do and what improvements it needs. By doing so, you can find out what you can contribute to crowdsource and so improve the ai and image recognition and handwriting recognition models used by lookout, lens etc. Thanks in advance.

[Rahul001]

Thank you @KattyGeltmeyer for sharing your comments and words. It’s new app I listen from you. I will surely check it out.

[Izumi]

@Rahul001

返信ありがとうございます

あなたに質問されたので私は探してみましたが、神奈川中央交通のバス停に補助聴覚ループマークは見つかりませんでした。

でも日本国内のバスに関して言えば、バス停にバスが停車すると、乗車口付近の外部スピーカーから「バスターミナル行きです」とアナウンスされます。

また、車内では自動音声で「次のバス停は市民病院入口です。市民病院へ行く人はここで降りると便利です。」などと放送されます。

私が検索した範囲では、補助聴覚ループは東京芸術劇場 や地方都市の公共施設などに設置されているそうです。

車内用の補助聴覚ループは萩市 や宇部市 のバスの一部には搭載されているという記事を見つけました。

東京都内では観光バスで有名な「はとバス」で車載用の実証実験が行われたので、近いうちに搭載されるかもしれません。

上記の施設やバスのループは観光客用に対応しているかは不明ですが、はとバスは海外からの旅行者向けのツアーもあるので、観光客にも対応してくれることを私は期待します。

[Maximilianozalazar]

@Rahul001 un gran trabajo! super informativo y muy detallado.