ACCESSIBILITY DEVELOPERS FOR DEAF PEOPLE

Le MESSAGEUR

Cooperative company registered in France in the field of social and solidarity’s economy

The company is born on march 2012, from two deaf associations, which were still working from 2004 on the same target.

We received the National Award 2012 for the entrepreneurship in solidary and social economy :TALENT DE LA CREATION D’ENTREPRISE

We received the Award 2013 for initiative in social economy Credit cooperatif

our skills

Usability and accessibility for people with oral deaf or hard of hearing.

Training for older people friendly services

Designers of accessibility systems for deaf or deaf blind.

Captioners (simultaneous transcripts) , sound technicians.

Everything around the help for the deaf

To be and stay the cheaper as possible .

The target is to apply the 2005 law for people with disabilities : Equal Opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing .

Our daily actions

Hearing Accessibility of events, work meeting, conferences, participatory days, by caption, magnetic loops or H. F. system, and we work on the “customized” sound.

We work with foreign partners to provide caption in 16 languages(here English-French)

Sound for all people.(here people without hearing aids )

Individual magnetic loops can give multi languages accessibility.

our daily actions

Consulting for local authorities, about accessibility of public buildings, public services, and expertise.

Accessibility of cultural shows...

Training for public workers, reception staff.

But our business core is the next :

Adaptation of the workplace and support deaf people to equal opportunities

Adaptation of the workplace and support deaf people,and so on in private life..

Each deaf, or each hard of hearing is different, with a different story, with different capabilities.

So we do our job in trying to learn, for each, needs and capabilities.

Tools and technology come after, being made for every different need

Each receive a spoken message by different way

by a part of visual way, with lipreading with mental compensation to guess the missing information obtained, with sound, Sign Language, and so on..hearing aids alone are not efficient in a lot of situations…

Here , hearing aids are not efficient .

OTHER TOOLS….

Example :

Here is Nelly during her training to become a director of a health facility, the trainer have a lavallier microphone, 25 colleagues use a wireless microphone ( 1 for 3)

Especially balanced sound, come into her hearing aid, and she get online caption from our services, which will prevent her to confusion, and allow her to collect the notes that she can not take because she focuses on lipreading.

Wireless microphone are a talking stick, it streamlines speaking…

deaf people can not locate the source of sound, the microphone is then stick speech, so he can read on lips from the beginning of the sentence, in addition to sound and / or text, and get a HI FI sound

We are craftsmen in the ergonomics of the hearing loss

Our process in individulal or collective help is:

1 – We only start from the needs, and abilities.

2- We train people living or working around the deaf to discover the right attitude and skills to be respectful of everyone in the speaking,

3 - We built an efficient transmission and an appropriate sound environment, to maximize remaining hearing abilities.

4- Sometimes, we give simultaneous caption if the deaf needs it.

5- Sometimes , some microphones and a Bose speaker are enought .

The challenge for 2014

Make the deaf blind people use a phone system.

We experienced the system last year, it’s efficient , but requires that the deaf blind can use the Braille.

We have been choose to be captionners, on the new experimentation « National Deaf Call Relay Center » , with our partner’s companies, as captionners.

The biggest barriers to success First: Ignorance of the general public about hearing

loss causes difficulty putting in place necessary accessibility. Deaf people are often hard to understand what they are told, and this fact that we do not realize their disability.

Second : the complexity of administrative records. The right side of the law in France, it is the will of care by law .. the bad side, it is the very long time to move from needs assessment to implementation, the number of decision makers involved in the records, and sometimes .. we call it a gas plant.

Third ..To help the deaf himself to accept his disability.

Fourth. To get the mobile network everywhere for caption.

Fifth: Miniaturize sound systems with 5 or 6 excellent wireless microphones, a powerful speaker, all this , if possible into an attache-case, create ergonomic tools.

A piece of humour: French gaz factory.

how to overcome these obstacles?

1 for the first difficulty, our answers are :

Awareness-raising and training for relatives of the Deaf , training managers on knowledge of special needs, to help the person to handle himself her accessibility.

Use our tools as a pedagogic help in training: using a microphone provides a so good speaking regulation that people are demanding sound system even in the absence of their deaf colleague.

2 Gaz factory ….

We succed against that big trouble in building slowly a network of professionals gifted, who are familiar with the many processes.

in training us,

In trying to anticipate issues

In working late every evening at office ..

3 overcome stigma and avoid denial

A lot of people becoming deaf, or hard of hearing, don’t accept that trouble, some are in the denial, a lot hide their désability, and they don’t know their own trouble, and often refuse it.

this requires a human approach, allow time for the person to perform, usually, training colleagues and relatives allows the person to the same time this way

4 Mobile network

for each caption through internet, we have to test the mobile network, bandwidth, speed, and c .. we manufacture devices that can adapt to the wireless, wireline network and c .. We have to adapt to each situation

We use computer Shopsystems sharing applications that are not bandwidth-intensive.

5 mini sono .

Opened suitcase : a sound system able to sonorise a meeting with 10 people

In this small roll case, we have a sound system able to give a good sound for 100 people, and a caption system, individual magnetic loop, a wireless network provider..

This one have been built for the needs of one deaf.