Latest news with #DeafCommunity
WIRED
10 hours ago
- WIRED
These Transcribing Eyeglasses Put Subtitles on the World
TranscribeGlass can subtitle conversations in nearly real time and will soon be able to translate languages and tell you when the person you're talking to you is feeling socially awkward. PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF TRANSCRIBE I knew the AI on these smart glasses worked pretty well once it told me that someone else in the conversation was being the socially awkward one. TranscribeGlass are smart eyeglasses that aim to do exactly what it says on the tin: transcribe spoken conversations and project subtitles onto the glass in front of your eyes. They're meant for the Deaf and, primarily, the hard-of-hearing community who struggle to read lips or pick out a conversation in a loud room. Most face computers are graceless and heavy, but these glasses are light, only 36 grams. TranscribeGlass is able to keep the weight off by relegating most of the main computing features to a companion app (iOS only for now). There are no cameras, microphones, or speakers in the frames, just a small waveguide projector in the rim of one eye that beams a 640 x 480p image onto the glass. That is just enough resolution for text to be legible when it is projected directly into your vision, subtitling the conversations picked up by the mic in your phone. In the app, subtitles can be moved around in the wearer's vision, anywhere within a 30-degree field of view. You can change the settings to adjust how many lines of text come in at a time, dialing up to a wall of text and down to one word at a time. The battery in the glasses should last around eight hours between charges. The frames cost around $377, and there's an additional $20-per-month subscription fee to access the transcription service. Subtitles are currently available in the glasses, but Madhav Lavakare, the 24-year-old founder of TranscribeGlass, has other features lined up. In the testing phase are a setting to translate languages in real time and one to analyze the tone of voice of the person talking. Glass Dismissed As Lavakare told me (and The New Yorker in April), he envisioned the idea for this product after wanting to help a hard-of-hearing friend engage in conversations that were not happening with his needs in mind. Lavakare, who is a senior at Yale University, figured glasses were the way to go. If he could just get them right. And, you know, make them look cooler than some other glasses out there. 'I was pretty obsessed with Google Glass when it came out,' Lavakare says. 'Oh,' I say. 'So you were a Glasshole?' 'I was, I was!' he says with a laugh. 'And then I was like, why are people calling me that?' While we are talking, the words pop up onto the screen of the glasses I'm wearing. They show up in a Matrix -y green font that patters out across my vision. It does a pretty good job of transcribing the conversation, though it does split the word 'Glasshole' into 'Glass Hole,' which is honestly funnier. Though Lavakare's smart glasses are much more normal-glasses-adjacent than Google Glass ever was, they still can't really help but look like smart glasses. The screen has a slight shimmer where the waveguides sit on the glass that is just visible enough to onlookers and is clearly noticeable to me when I am wearing them. Aside from those minor gripes, the service itself works almost eerily well. At a bustling coworking space in San Francisco with many conversations happening around us, Lavakare and Nirbhay Narang, Transcribe's CTO, talked to me while I wore the glasses. Most of the transcriptions were grammatically correct and were labeled with different speaker titles to make it clear who was talking. It all works so fast and so well, in fact, that the words popped up so quickly that I had trouble reading them as the conversation went on and new lines of text appeared almost simultaneously. The transcriptions are also sometimes a little grainy and hard to focus on at the moment. Still, with a little practice, it's hard not to see how this would be extremely useful for people who are hard of hearing. TranscribeGlass has a few competitors. Companies like Even realities and XRAI make glasses that look flashier and offer more features, like turn-by-turn directions and chatbot interaction. But Lavakare says the limited functionality is what makes his spectacles special. 'All these smart glasses exist, but no one's found a great use case for them,' Lavakare says. 'We think we've really found a use case that's just insanely valuable to the end user.' While he says these glasses can't play music or use AI to answer questions, they only really need to do one thing well to get people to wear them: help them understand what is being said around them. Lavakare likens that feeling of missing out on a conversation happening around you to a kind of social isolation. That said, he does hope to pack other conversational features into the glasses, with the goal of enhancing what you can glean from the subtext of a chat. One upcoming feature is language translation. Narang and I have a short conversation to test the translation abilities. He speaks to me in Hindi while I speak to him in English. On my glasses, I see whatever he's speaking to me translated into English on my screen. When I respond in English, the Hindi text pops up on his phone app. It's a service that also seems to work well enough, though some words are mistranslated. That's why the feature hasn't yet come to the few hundred customers TranscribeGlass has now. IMAGE COURTESY OF TRANSCRIBE More Features to Come There are other features in the works. Lavakare wants to let users have the option of translating a spoken language into something more like the syntax used in a visual language such as American Sign Language, which tends to have a different order of nouns, verbs, and tense than spoken English. Trusting that translation to AI, when most Deaf people can and do already read in English just fine, could cause some inaccuracies or misinterpretations. Lavakare acknowledges that potential for error, noting that he has talked with Deaf educators at the American School for the Deaf to try to get it right. 'Sign language grammar is actually very different than English grammar,' Lavakare says. 'That's why this is still experimental.' He's also testing an even more dubious capability—recognizing the emotion of a speaker based on tone of voice alone. Emotion tracking is a fraught topic in the AI space, albeit one people just can't seem to help putting into smart glasses. While TranscribeGlass hasn't released the ability to catalog emotions during a conversation, the team is testing it with the goal of releasing soon. It makes sense for helping with conversational comprehension, given that detecting how a person says something is often as important as knowing what they say. Lavakare lets me test it out, switching on the feature while I'm wearing the glasses. 'Watch this,' he says. Then, 'Hey Boone, how's it going?' His words pop up on the screen. I start to answer, and then a dialog tag appears with the emotion attached to his words: [Awkwardness]. I laugh and say, 'Oh no, are we that awkward?' Then the tag pops up on my words: [Amused]. Now my words have my name next to it, which the platform had picked up when Lavakare said it earlier. As soon as I finish talking, it changes my dialog tag to [Awkwardness] . Well. Maybe this thing does work.
CBC
5 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Manitoba's accessibility minister apologizes for comments about sign language interpreter
Manitoba's accessibility minister is apologizing to the Deaf community for comments she made about a sign language interpreter that were caught on a hot mic. Minister Nahanni Fontaine made the comments while preparing to speak to reporters following a speech during a graduation event she hosted for Indigenous women Thursday. A sign language interpreter was with her on stage during the speech. Video taken by APTN shows Fontaine discussing her performance with a person off-camera, apparently unaware the camera was recording. The recording shows the minister saying she was "thrown off" because of the interpreter. "I couldn't see anybody on this side," Fontaine said. "And all I could see was her —" "Frantic hand movements?" the other person said. "Yeah, I'm like, 'F--k, why did I have her on the stage?' Jesus! I'm like, 'you need to leave,'" the minister is heard saying in the APTN video. The Opposition Progressive Conservatives called on Fontaine, the NDP member for St. Johns, to apologize and immediately resign from her role as accessibility minister, saying in social media posts Friday it's a responsibility "she clearly does not respect." Fontaine said in a statement she was expressing frustration about "her poor planning ensuring clear sight lines on all graduates" during a private debrief with staff. "My comments did not acknowledge signing is not simply 'hand movements,' but a full and rich language used by thousands of Manitobans every day," she said in the statement. The minister said she spoke with the sign language interpreter to offer her a personal apology, and to thank her for her work. "I also sincerely apologize to the Deaf community and to all Manitobans for my comments," Fontaine said. Barrier-Free Manitoba said in a statement it's aware of the recording, pointing out all Manitobans are entitled to accessible communication, including ASL translation, during public events under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act. The statement said the organization hopes Fontaine and her colleagues "will respond by reinforcing the act's mandate — ensuring accessible public communications through robust education and compliance." "Leadership means setting the tone from the top, and we trust the government will act decisively to uphold the dignity and inclusion rights" of the Deaf and hard of hearing communities, the statement said.
CTV News
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Marlee Matlin tells her story in an intimate and groundbreaking documentary
Actor Marlee Matlin, left, and director Shoshannah Stern pose for a portrait to promote "Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore" on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP) When American Masters approached Marlee Matlin about doing a documentary, Matlin had one name in mind to direct: Shoshanna Stern. Like Matlin, Stern is deaf. She also hadn't directed before. But Matlin, who herself became the first deaf person in the Directors Guild of America just a few years ago, was certain she was up to the task. The resulting film, 'Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore' is an intimate look at her life: Growing up in a hearing family; winning the best actress Oscar at 21 for her first movie role in 'Children of a Lesser God,' which film critic Rex Reed at the time called a 'pity vote'; what she's described as an abusive romantic relationship with her co-star, the late William Hurt, which he denied; getting sober; and her experiences in an industry not equipped to accommodate deaf actors. It's also an evocative portal into the world of the deaf community that uses groundbreaking techniques and sound design to put American Sign Language (ASL) and visual communication first. The film opens in select theaters Friday. While Matlin told much of her story in the memoir 'I'll Scream Later,' on some level it wasn't a completely satisfactory experience. Before the #MeToo movement, its revelations were not treated entirely seriously in the media. But a documentary also provided an opportunity. 'We communicate visually,' she said. Matlin and Stern spoke though translators to The Associated Press about the 'CODA' effect, making the doc on their terms, and why they hope Reed sees this film. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: Shoshanna, what was your approach? STERN: I had never seen a deaf person direct an episode of TV or film. Never. I thought, what does that even look like? I didn't realize until I took the job that really the whole form of documentary as we know it is really rooted in sound, in the assumption that people will be speaking and they can speak. I thought, what are we going to do when we're using American Sign Language? I have to reframe a whole form of documentary. We have to be able to see what a visually-based documentary is going to look like. We wouldn't do justice to Marlee's life if I had forced this form that really wasn't rooted in the way that she experienced this life. And that was exciting to do. Scary for some people out there, but I never felt scared in making this documentary because she believed in me. MATLIN: If I had had a hearing director approach me to do this project, we could have done a very good job, but that person would not have seen me in the same way. They would not have the same lens as a deaf person. AP: What were some techniques you used to spotlight the deaf experience? STERN: I did want to film with captions in mind, so I made sure that we did have a wider frame. We figured out visual voiceover with a split screen that we added. We did this little surgery with words and syllables in one of the scenes where we mixed them all around to be able to bring people into how Marlee experiences conversations and the world. We wanted to make this documentary an immersive experience for the audience members, a sensory experience to help them understand. AP: 'CODA' felt like a big moment, but in the years since it won the Oscar, have you seen things change? MATLIN: 'CODA' certainly was a milestone and respected by so many people in the industry. It tackled a lot of things that both deaf and hearing people or audiences can identify with. I love the fact that they burnt in the captions. That you can't just turn it off. And I hoped that all the love we received and the three Academy Awards that we got would make a difference. It was honored on so many other levels too as well, whether we're talking about (director) Sian (Heder) or you're talking about Troy (Kotsur) or the SAG award which was just a dream come true, specifically of mine. I took that opportunity to specifically address that that we 'exist,' that we want to be actors just like you, we want to be directors, we want be producers, we want to be hair and wardrobe stylists. We want to work in all levels of production. So 'CODA' really elevated that conversation about how much we wanted to be part of the industry. But for some reason it didn't really break open the door as wide as I would have thought. Yet we just don't give up. We are persistent. Because it is what it is. We are working on our own levels to make changes. STERN: Marlee said something really brave when we were at Sundance. She said, 'It won't last.' The moment, yes, in the moment. But I don't know if we have movement. MATLIN: There's so many stories that we can tell, so many stories that you can put up on screen, so many stories that we can put on stage. I'd like to see action because I've been hearing that, 'Yes, we have to do this' or 'I will do this,' but it's been 40 years. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I just want to make sure that we put our money where our mouth is. I go back to that comment about Rex Reed. I wonder if he would ever see this film. I'd love to see if he has the balls to make a comment and say, 'Oh look, I realize I might have said something wrong.' That's just one example of the things I'd like to see happen. And maybe the people who interviewed me over the years. I don't want you to misunderstand me, I have a great deal of respect for them. But specifically, I am calling out Rex Reed. So, you know, sorry but not sorry. Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
National Post
16-06-2025
- Business
- National Post
Leading Labour Groups and Deaf Organizations Question Canadian Hearing Services Rating as Strike Drags On
Article content TORONTO — With Deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing Ontarians still desperately without services, community allies, labour groups, and elected leaders have delivered an open letter to Accreditation Canada questioning the high rating received by Canadian Hearing Services (CHS). Article content The letter reads, in part: 'The situation at CHS has been deteriorating for years, a decline felt not only by workers but also by clients. […] These problems are not minor. They are structural. And they are the result of a leadership model that has consistently prioritized executive pay and centralized control over staff well-being and service delivery.' Article content Along with hundreds of community members, high profile signatories include: Article content Marit Styles, Leader, Ontario NDP Laura Walton, President, Ontario Federation of Labour Fred Hahn, President, CUPE Ontario JP Hornick, President, OPSEU/SEFPO Tamara Witcher, President, OSSTF D30 representing workers at E.C. Dury, Robarts and Sir James Whitney Schools for the Deaf Patricia Grenier, President, Northern Ontario Association of the Deaf Brad Evoy, Executive Director, Disability Justice Network of Ontario Sherry Caldwell, Founder, Ontario Disability Coalition Les Sicoli, Representative, Ottawa Deaf Seniors Article content CHS first sought the stamp of approval from Accreditation Canada, a respected standards body in the medical community, when Julia Dumanian took over as CEO. Coming from the hospital sector, Dumanian brought a medicalized model to CHS which clients have noted severed ties between the Deaf community and the agency while treating Deafness as a disability instead of an identity. Article content The letter ends with a plea for Accreditation Canada to take into account labour relations at an agency that is currently experiencing its second prolonged service disruption under Dumanian's leadership. Article content 'What does it mean for an agency to receive exemplary standing when Deaf clients are saying they're not having their needs met? It's not just this strike, which CHS forced on workers and CHS has shown zero interest in resolving. For years, CHS has been moving in the wrong direction, putting distance between itself and the Deaf community while undervaluing the very workers who deliver their critical services,' said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario. 'That sentiment among the community CHS is meant to serve should make Accreditation Canada question the agency's rating.' Article content Workers at Canadian Hearing Services, represented by CUPE 2073, have been on strike since April 28. There have been no talks since May 21 with CHS refusing to return to the table. Members remain focused on a fair, multi-year deal that provides stability for workers and improved services for Deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing Ontarians. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content Article content
National Post
10-06-2025
- Health
- National Post
Deaf and hard of hearing organizations call for Canadian Hearing Services to get back to the table and end the 7-week strike
Article content TORONTO — Missed medical appointments, missing hearing aids, and all manner of services for Deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing Ontarians missing in action: that is the result of a seven week long strike at Canadian Hearing Services (CHS). Now two leading Deaf and hard of hearing advocacy groups are calling attention to the deleterious impact on their already marginalized communities. Article content In an open letter recorded in American Sign Language by Vanessa Floros, treasurer of the Ontario Association of the Deaf (OAD), and viewed more than 2,000 times online, the OAD makes clear that they have reached out to CHS' management about the deep and painful disruption Deaf people are experiencing but have not received a response. Article content The silence we have gotten from CHS is heartbreaking. As the stories, the concerns, complaints and anger pour in, we have seen them. Some of us have, as Deaf citizens, responded and tried to help, but we too have been suffering with the loss of our therapists, our interpreters, our support system, and our independence. We do not place blame on the strikers […] After consulting with the Deaf community, it must be made clear that the strike is now a human rights issue. Article content The open letter concludes with an impassioned plea: 'With the silence of CHS, we, your biggest consumers, the Deaf community, mourn the decline of an organization that once brought joy, hope, and independence to us and we place the blame solely on those that refused to communicate, refused to let us help, and refused to let our community thrive.' Article content The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association's own letter addressed directly to Accreditation Canada and the ministers responsible for funding the agency echoed those concerns: 'It is distressing to witness the deterioration of access to essential programs and support mechanisms for a community already facing systemic barriers.' Article content The two bargaining teams last met on May 21 during which time CHS management refused to put forward an offer, refused to consider the members' proposals, refused to agree to new dates to bargain, and insisted that four unreasonable demands be met, including a media blackout, before negotiations resumed. Since then, they have ignored repeated requests to get back to bargaining. Article content 'This support means so much to workers. We desperately want to get back to the table to get a good deal so we can get back to doing jobs that contribute to the joyful lives of Deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing people,' said Mara Waern, president of CUPE 2073 and an employee consultant with more than 30 years' experience at CHS. 'For that we need a willing partner. CHS put these roadblocks in place and it's only CHS that can remove them. We're grateful to have leaders in the Deaf and hard of hearing communities in our corner.' Article content Article content Article content Article content For more information, please contact: Article content Article content Article content Article content
