1. SoftBridge in Action: The First Deaf Telephony Pilot W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis University of Cape Town Work in Progress Computer Science & Communication Sciences and Disorders

2. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Deaf Telephony Text-based communications –SMS –Instant Messaging –Deaf Telephones, e.g. Teldem Real-time Bridging to PSTN –Text-to-Speech (TTS) –Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

3. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Prototypes and problems with Automated Deaf Telephony Telgo323 & TelgoSIP –One way direction –Bi-directional work in progress Automatic Speech Recognition –Poor free-flow recognition rates –Restricted domain conversations –Accent bias

4. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis SoftBridge

5. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Experimentation Deaf user (DU) has a Text in/Text out Exodus client Hearing user (HU) can vary the media input/output All conversations logged for subsequent analysis

6. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Test One Explaining procedure via SoftBridge vs. signed language interpreting created a real exchange DU concerned that HU would not comprehend “Deaf writing” DU used half-duplex (from Teldem experience) Computer literacy of this DU was high PCs proximity too close

7. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Test Two TTS messages arrive abruptly and delivered quickly (no replay or visualization) DU again concerned about Deaf literacy to unfamiliar HU DU liked synchronous exchange (better than SMS) Presence indication required to alert for incoming DU acts in Teldem character mode, rather than complete message

8. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Test Three Expected, and got, poor ASR performance that required –Overly careful articulation –Pauses between words –researcher to use text to clear up misunderstanding Relied on the fact that this DU had effective repair skills Log mechanism needs to annotate HU output modes

9. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Next Steps Client software needs presence indicators Server software –Log requires more automated annotation –“Teldem-ese” inserted into TTS dictionary Move to other input/output devices, e.g. Teldem, cellphone, telephone Expansion of trials to Deaf users with more typical text and computer literacy How to get the hearing community to accept the delays and poor quality?

10. University of Cape Town Sep 9, 2003 W Tucker, M Glaser and J Lewis Authors William Tucker –btucker@cs.uct.ac.za Meryl Glaser –mglaser@uctgsh1.uct.ac.za John Lewis –jlewis@cs.uct.ac.za