Overlooking the obvious?

Sometimes, I wonder.

I spotted this story from AP: Devices help deaf, hearing communicate. It's about the staff of an auto repair shop who told the owner that they have deaf clients... and it would be nice if there's anything to ease the language barrier.

*For months*, they looked for *electronic gizmos*. You'll read the rest of the story. :)

Somehow... it's a classic example of being "railroaded". Something that we, -as computer programmers-, are sometimes guilty.

When resolving a problem, you have to be open-minded. You have to figure out from which angle to view a problem, in order to visualize a solution. From there, you write a computer program that will solve the said problem.

To some extents, we're always railroaded in our thinking. The solution must be a computer solution. You're a computer programmer, right? Right.

The problem is... not all problems can be solved efficiently with a computer program.

I think this is a similar case. They wanted electronic gizmos, so they looked for... electronic gizmos, and nothing else.

Oh don't get me wrong! As a guy who is paid to play with technology, heh... gadgets will continue to fascinate me, and I will report them here (ie: IBM develops virtual deaf interpreter)

Somehow... if you have time and money to invest, like this auto repair shop...

How about... ASL classes for the staff?

I'm also thinking... of the humble piece of paper and a pen, and having those in ample supply. It certainly beats costly, fragile and intimidating electronic gizmos... for face-to-face communications, don't you think?

Don't worry, deaf people are used to the language barrier. It's part of their daily life, trust me! We live in a hearing world and there are so many frustrating reminders of that fact, therefore they are fully aware of the kind of world we all live in! ;)

So, they'll be the first to offer you a pen and paper... to break the language barrier!

They'll immensely appreciate if you have made the effort of learning Sign Language. It's not harder (and I might say, it may be even easier) than learning another "verbal" language, such as Spanish, the de-facto second language in the US.

Sometimes, technology isn't a solution.

Not yet. :)

Cheers!

-E