Equipment for Deafblind People

This describes pieces of equipment which are used by, or are particularly suitable for use by, deafblind people. Many of these devices are aids to communication. Some are still being developed.

Alphabet Glove: This is a white glove with letters of the alphabet written in various places on it. This allows someone who does not know any of the manual alphabets to communicate with a deafblind person wearing the glove, touching letters in succession. The deafblind person simply feels where they are being touched to know what letter is being sent.
Block Letter Communicator.
For more information you can Contact:
Braille lite: This is like the Braille 'n' Speak made by Blazie Engineering but it has a refreshable braille display on it as well as speech. The speech can be turned off. The Blazie site also has an article reviewing it. Blazie Engineering now have UK Site.
Braille Closed Caption Decoder: Converts American closed captions off TV into grade 1 or 2 braille. This is made by Dewtronics. Nelson Dew <ndew@cwv.net> has supplied me with the README file for this product, which I have put here as I received it.; I have no description of this device. It can be obtained from:
Brailletalk: This is a small, black, plastic box, about the area of a postcard and about 1 cm thick. It opens up like a book and has braille symbols for A-Z, THE, and AND, above which are printed the meanings in Roman type. (It may have other symbols in, it is a while since I have seen it.) The sighted person guides the deafblind person's finger to the appropriate cell, spelling out the message. Malcolm Matthews <malcolmm@ash.win-uk.net> dug about for me to remind me of the name. It is available from Electronic Services for the Blind and from .; Brian And Jance Payne
CUPID Computer Use by the PrInt Disabled: is a system which is designed for people who use touch, sight or sound to access information. It is an organiser, word processor and communication aid developed by Cloudworld Ltd. The novel tactile output is not braille based, and it is claimed to be quicker to read than braille. Outputs in large print and clear speech are also possible. The unit is not yet in production as I write this (June 1998). Cloudworld Ltd was founded by John Nissen <jn@tommy.demon.co.uk> in 1996.
Finger Braille Supporting Device
Flashing (Large print) timer[This page seems to have gone]: A person has developed this timer and is seeking a manufacturer for it.
Flat Magnetic Stainless Steel Speakers.
Hand Tapper: This allows a deafblind person who uses the British Manual alphabet to use the telephone. There is a handshaped indentation in the top of the unit, and the person rests their hand on this. "Buttons" are pressed up against the fingers to form (slightly modified) British Manual characters. This project is very much still under development, and is being held back by funding problems. Hasicom (Hearing And Sight Impaired Communication), whose project this is, are now part of the Deafblind UK, in Peterborough, England. They can be contaced by email at hasicom@dbuktechnology.demon.co.uk. BT used to have a page about this, but it seems to have gone.
Large Print Display for TTY: Ultratec make a large print display which plugs into the printer port of their textphones (Minicoms, or TTYs). This is not available in the UK as Ultratec cannot justify the cost of BABT approval.
Lightwriter: Lightwriters are designed to allow deaf people who don't sign, or aphasic people, to coomunicate using text. There are various models of lightwriter, and some of them have vacuum flourescent displays, which makes them particularly easy to see -- they are bright blue characters. I don't think they have a large print display though. They can have one keyboard, or two keyboards back to back, or they can have a scanning system with a switch for people with motor disabilities. They are produced by Toby Churchill Ltd of Cambridge, England (Email 100701.446@compuserve.com), and are also described on an Australian WWW page.
Nurion Industries
Omni Page: This paging system is designed for people who need to communicate to another person - or need to be aware of a signal from an electronic device, such as a smoke detector, telephone, sound monitor, or doorbell.
RALPH (Robotic Alphabet): This is a robotic fingerspelling hand which interfaces to any serial (RS232) device. It converts the ASCII to American fingerspelling for use by a deafblind person who is unfamiliar with braille or who does not have the sensitivity to feel it. It is still under development.
Screen Braille Communicator: This is a portable unit about the size of a text telephone, but it only weighs 900g (2 lb). It has a QWERTY keyboard and LCD display on one side, and on the other (where a text phone would have its rubber cups) is a braille keyboard and a display. The braille display can be 1 or 8 cells of 6-dot braille. What the braille user inputs is seen on the LCD display, and what the typist inputs is beld in a buffer and can be scrolled through by the deafblind user. The braille is grade 1 with no group contractions (OU, ING, AND, etc are not available). When the deafblind person has finished reading what is in the buffer an LED lights up. The Screen Braille Communicator is designed for face-to-face communication, so the buffer holding the text is only 512 characters long, but this can be expanded up to 1 or 2k. There is no connector for a computer or printer; this is for reasons of simpliciity and cost. It is powered by a rechargeable battery. The unit can be obtained from:
Speaking Hand: This is based on a dataglove, and allows a deafblind person to send the British (2 handed) manual alphabet to a computer. In the future it is hoped the computer can send back to the user by inflating small balloons in the glove to produce pressure on the fingertips like that from another person. It was invented by Robert Kleine. It has been shown on the BBC's television programmes "Tomorrow's World" and "See Hear!" and exhibited at the London Science Museum.
Speech to braille Project: Krista Caudill <caudill@ASEL.UDEL.EDU> is working with Beth Finn at the Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories ASEL, University of Delaware on a project to produce a portable communications system for deafblind people, based on translating braille to and from speech. There is an article about it .
SuperBraille 2000.
TACTAID: The TACTAID II+ and the TACTAID 7 convert sounds to vibrations on small pads which can be attached to the body. The difference is that the TACTAID II+ has 2 channels and thus 2 pads, while the TACTAID 7 has 7 channels. Each channel reponsds to a frequency band. The unit consists of a small box much like a body worn aid, and wires running to the pads. If the pads are attached to areas where long bones are prominent E.g, by a ring to the fingers, or on a wrist band, it becomes easier to feel the vibrations. These are manufactured by Audiological Engineering Corporation, 35 Medford Street, Somerville, MA 02143, USA Thank you to Dona Sauerburger <sauerburger@mindsprint.com> and Jim Boardman <JBoard1952@aol.com> for this information.
Tactiwatch: This is a vibrating clock, available from RNIB. It cannot be set by a deafblind person. It "displays" the time by pulses of vibration, the user counts the pulses to get the hours and minutes.
Talking Disc -- NO LONGER AVAILABLE: This was a disc with braille and print characters on it, and a pointer. The pointer was moved to the print character, and the deafblind person feels the corresponding braille character. It was available from RNIB.
Talking Glove: A Cyberglove virtual reality gove has been used in the recognition of the american one-handed fingerspelling alphabet.
TDDs for the Deaf-Blind: A short list from Computer Technology for Persons with vision impairments resource list at the Washington Assitive Technology Alliance site.
Telebraille: The Telebraille is made by Telesensory in California. The telebraille does not have a computer communications modem but it does have a TTY (TDD) modem. It was designed as a TTY for deafblind people and is also very useful for face to face conversation. It has two components. The sighted component is a modified SuperCom TTY device. It has a qwerty keyboard and a single line LED dislplay. The display is regular size and is not particularly suited to people with low vision. The SuperCom TTY can be connected directly to the telephone line using conventional telephone jack or the telephone receiver can be coupled to the SuperCom on a cradle on top of the device. Text flows past the display, in a continuous stream, like tickertape The SuperCom is connected to the Braille portion of the device by a cable that is about two feet long. The Braille display is about 15 characters in width, although there is a knockout to allow additional characters to be installed, at considerable additional cost. The Telebraille is able to communicate in ASCI mode but it is not compatible to conventional computer modems. There is what looks like a RS232 socket on the back of the Braille component, but the instructions for the Telebraille state that this jack is for 'future use' and that no computer devices should be attached to it! This conversation reminds me that I have not been in contact with Telesensory for over two years and further developments may have been made since then. They have a WWW page about the Telebraille III.
Telephoning with Deaf-blind people over the PC,
Teletouch: The teletouch is a mechanical device the size of a small portable typewriter. It has a combined qwerty/Braille keyboard on one side and a single Braille cell on the receiving side. The sender must type slowly and precisely because the receiver must read one letter at a time. This machine has been out of production for some time and is hard to get, but it does have the advantage of being light and portable and it does not require a power supply.
The Touching Solution to Medication Independence for Deaf-Blind Individuals: A Vibro-Tactile, Multi-Alarm, Wearable Medication Reminder.
Versabraille: this is like a text telephone (or TTY) but the display is in braille. These are no longer made and are hard to get repaired.
Vibrating Alerting Devices: There are a number of suppliers of such things including
Vibrating Doorbell: A modified doorbell button transmits signals to a vibrating (and audible) alarm worn by the user. This is available from RNIB.
Vibrating Pager VP1
Vibrating Liquid Level Indicator
Designed principally for milk, and tea or coffee in a cup, this has long prongs (for the milk) and short prongs (for the drink) and hangs over the side of the cup. It vibrates when liquid touches the prongs. Available from RNIB
The Vuphonics Home Page.

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Last Modified on 28-APRIL-2000 by James Gallagher <James@deafblind.co.uk>.