This is a classic New York experience. You are driving the metro to work, and suddenly the train stops. The lighting is leaving, and you seem to be trapped between the stations in the tunnel. For many residents of New York, strengthened for many years of bad weather, common garbage and cohabitation with rats, this is just another repeating event, which has become less nervous experience. But for Jarrod Musano, when he was stuck on a train to the south 6, which lost power, there was little relief. Musano was born deaf, and announcements only for audio recordings were not help. Musano did not see anything in the dark, and had to rely on an assessment of the number of panic in his environment.
“I knew that if this is serious, people will move quickly,” he recalls the incident. Musano experience reflects one of many ways in which people with disabilities and, in particular, are difficult to listen to them, have difficulty using public transport. Musano – General Director OvoThe company, which was founded in 2009 and connects people with translators of the language of gestures on demand. Today is the company Partnership announcement With the transit of New Yorka, New Jerseti Transit and Porta Office of New Yorka and New Jersey, which brings its services to the airports of the district, trains and other large transit centers. This includes a system of metro transport control (MTA), Long -Alenda and Njtransit railway road.
Thanks to this partnership, QR codes will be placed in various places of these systems, and scanning will be launched by the Convo web application through the browser. The user will be proposed to provide access to their microphone and camera, and then will be connected to the translator of the language of gestures in real time on his devices. This, of course, requires people to have mobile phones or tablets with working Internet, which cannot always be reliable. It is worth noting, however, that MTA adds Wi-Fi coating at the metro station throughout the network. In addition, many of these QR codes are placed in customer service cabins that have gadgets that can provide access.
For several months, convoys and his partners conducted pilot tests at the Penn station, the Times Square and the Port Management Termen and the press release said that in general, users reported “Feelings of expanding rights and opportunities, inclusion and newly acquired confidence in interaction with transit personnel. “The company added that 44 out of 47 users were able to successfully access the service during the pilot.
There are a number of reasons for using the interpreter of the gesture language, which would be more effective and effective than, say, to dial messages on your phone and transfer them to another person for reading. Firstly, for many deaf people, the language of gestures is their native language, and it would be more intuitive to express themselves in such a way than gaining English. The language of gestures also has another syntax than English. The interpreter of the gesture language can also help translate as a deaf person, as well as while a person says with a hearing that it can reduce the disappointment and time spent on the transfer of the phone there and a place. It can feel comforting and encouraging to have an affordable interpreter who understands that you are communicating, and since they will probably be quite familiar with the situation, the translator can also help exchange information that they already know from context and experience.
I went to look for these QR codes when this weekend was in Moynihan Train Hall (expanding the Penn station), and as soon as I noticed the first at the tickets of tickets in the Lirr service area, I began to notice them all. In total, I totaled five of small green squares, and after scanning I was taken to the Convo page in my browser, which demonstrated an explanation and advice on better maintenance. I did not want to waste the translator, so I stopped after that.
I have to note that, as a user of T-Mobile, I often lose my signal on the Moinikhan train and should use the public Wi-Fi station, which, in my opinion, has unreliable speeds.
This is one of the problems that Convo will have to fight and work, as the service reaches more people. “When we deploy it in MTA, we are going to find out the types of behavior, types of requests, types of problems that we will encounter the language will be supported. At the moment, ASL is a default, although the convoy would not have to stretch out too difficult to find translators for the British language of gestures and others. In fact, Convo is already working with large networks in countries such as Australia and Great Britain, and Musano states that he has partnerships with British Airlines, Aer Lingus, British railway and much more.
The Convo service in New York and New Jersey transit systems is free, and its CONVO application now provides 20 free minutes a month for all users who need gesture translators.