A recent technological advancement has brought online shopping, social media presence and so much more to members of the blind and deaf community. A program called iCanConnect provides low-income deaf-blind individuals with state-of-the-art telecommunications devices, as well as the training to use them. The program was established by the Federal Communications Commission and allocates $10 million per year for low-income deaf-blind people to receive equipment designed with them in mind.
The devices; which are designed specifically for the deaf-blind community, including refreshable Braille displays, amplifiers for telephones and programs to enlarge the text; can connect to Apple products via Bluetooth and are typically very expensive to produce due to the level of technology used.
The Braille displays use a series of tiny pins that pop up and down through holes to scroll through letters for a blind person to read. Some of these devices can cost as much as $6,000.
The FCC has stated the implementation of this program is solely to improve the telecommunications of the deaf-blind population. Participants of the program must apply and complete a rigorous screening program before being accepted. The screening process determines which devices would best benefit the applicant, and the program allocates the devices accordingly.
The entire program is based on the needs of the applicants. This program is partnering with the Helen Keller National Center, the Perkins School for the Blind and state agencies.
But why is a program like this just now developing? People have been blind and deaf since the beginning of time – it is estimated that 100,000 Americans are blind. Technology has been advancing steadily for quite some time now. Online shopping isn’t a new thing. Neither is the use of social media or emailing. Yes, the technology for these devices is more advanced and has taken more time to develop, but that is only another reason more emphasis should have been placed on such developments.
Although the technology for refreshable Braille devices and the like is fairly new, telecommunications technologies have been on the fast track to improvement for years. We have programs to provide low-income families with cell phones, but until now, no such moves have been made to assist the blind-deaf community in the area of telecommunications.
We as a society should place more emphasis on catering to the deaf-blind community than on catering to the wants of the high-class members of society.
However, now that iCanConnect is being implemented, the blind-deaf community can connect to the world in ways we’ve never before imagined. They can chat on Facebook. They can tweet. They can surf the Internet like every other person does. It is estimated that in the 18 months following the start of the program, about 2,000 people have received devices from iCanConnect. The program is scheduled to continue as a study for three years.