Video Helps Open Market for the Deaf
When Gail Edwards works with her real estate clients -- lining up appointments, discussing bidding strategy or just checking in -- she's often talking to her TV screen.She's not speaking out loud. Instead, she's using American Sign Language, fingers flying, pausing to emphatically shake her head or to put her hands up in surprise or disbelief. On the TV screen, she might see a deaf client, watching her on his or her own screen and signing back. Or she might see a video relay interpreter -- a hearing person who calls up the person Edwards wants to communicate with, then translates between that person's spoken words and Edwards's signs.