In this issue, I want to examine the power of face-to-face communication at a deeper level. When you have a face – to-face encounter with another person,you usually have a conversation without communication barriers.
A hearing person has approximately 80 encounters with other people a day. In the work environment, that number may be unlimited. In a typical 8-to-5 workday, the hearing person will have impromptu conversations, meeting conversations, hall conversations or office conversations with hearing co-workers, managers or clients. The encounters they have come with no barriers to communication.
Now think about this:How many encounters can a deaf or hard or hearing person have in a typical workday?
With the UbiDuo, I am able to have about 40 encounters with my hearing staff in my office. The picture below shows me having a conversation with Jill Meyers, the COO of sComm. Jill and I talk about 15 to 20 times a day. We are able to strike up a conversation anytime on the UbiDuo and discuss work – related issues. If I didn’t have the UbiDuo, my
encounter number will almost be zero — unless I had an interpreter sitting by me all day!
If you work with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, do you want their encounter number to be 40 or 50 instead of zero? The only time that a deaf or hard of hearing person ideally could have a face-to-face encounter with a hearing person is when they have an interpreter. As I’ve mentioned before, we are not trying to replace interpreters, but we are trying to increase the number of encounters for a deaf or hard of hearing person when an interpreter is not available.
The UbiDuo fills the gap when an interpreter is not available by inc reasing their number of encounters professional or social situations. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, what do you want your encounter number to be?
I want to share a personal experience I had last weekend in St. Louis. My fraternity brother named Roddy Meyer and I hadn’t seen each other in 17 years. He remembers sign language from college, but I have learned that with limited sign language, you cannot have the deep or complex conversations that two hearing people experience. As Roddy and I began signing AND using the UbiDuo, we were able to talk about so many more different things.