Got Google Voice? [or why Google voice is especially useful for the Deaf]
I have been using Google Voice for a long time and love it. It recently occured to me that Google Voice is a HUGE EQUALIZER for deaf people.
So many deaf people are on text messaging only plans. That means they don't pay for cellular minutes that they can't use which is a good thing. Unfortunately, many others are on plans that include some minutes. For those people, the minutes are a total waste as they cannot use the minutes being deaf or hard of hearing.
Enter google voice!
Now if a deaf person hooks google voice into their cell phones they can actually get an email or text message with a machine transcription of what the caller said when s/he left a message on the line.
This instantaneous voice to text transcription is very useful for hearing people but it's a game changer for deaf people. Now deaf people can get instant notification of who called and what was said. From there they can return the call using whatever mode works best.
This means that deaf people can use their cell phones in the course of their day to day life/work just like hearing people. Of course the machine transcription is not perfect but it's suitable enough to give the general point of the message including exactly who called [if the callers number is in the google voice users contact list.]
Are you on google voice? If not you should give it a try. 
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