Research at
Gallaudet University
2005 - 2006

Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access

Status: Ongoing Begin date: September 1, 2004 End date: August 31, 2009

Description

The primary mission of the Telecommunications Access RERC is to advance accessibility and usability in existing and emerging telecommunications products for people with all types of disabilities. Telecommunications accessibility is addressed along all three of its major dimensions: user interface, transmission (including digitization, compression, etc.), and modality translation services (relay services, gateways, etc.). The RERC looks at advances that have both short- and long-term outcomes related to assistive technologies, interoperability, and universal design of telecommunications. The research and development program of this RERC covers three areas:
 
1. Development of tools, techniques, and performance-based measures that can be used to evaluate current and evolving telecommunication technologies. Technologies of interest include video telephones and other video communication products and voice telecommunications products such as wireless and cordless phones.
 
2. Projects in cooperation with industry to improve accessibility of digital cellular and cordless wireline phones as well as other emerging products.
 
3. Improving access to emerging telecommunications, particularly digital and IP based systems. Projects in this area will: a) Identify techniques to alert people about possible emergencies and to ensure accessible communication in emergency or crisis situations. (A State of the Science Conference on Accessible Emergency Notification and Communication was held Nov. 2-3, 2005.); b) Seek solutions for the current incompatibility issues around text communications and ways to build the necessary capabilities into mainstream technologies, to allow them to evolve to new text, speech, and visual communication technologies. (This will enable deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate over the mainstream technologies in the modes that work best for them.); and c) Develop guidelines and reference materials to help mainstream telecommunications manufacturers build their regular products in a way that allows individuals with visual, hearing, physical, and cognitive disabilities to be able to use them.

Investigators