Transcript: The pandemic's influence on accessibility | Meryl Evans | TEDxPlano
(Silence) (Upbeat music) Recall a time you were around people having a conversation in a language you don't know.
(Speaking Japanese) (Continues speaking Japanese) (Continues speaking Japanese) (Continues speaking Japanese) How did it make you feel? Confused? Left out? Maybe it'll be easier in English.
The ... today ... reconnecting, there ... people ... me who ... to connect place. ... because I ... ... hearing .... ... how to speak ....
Despite years ... therapy, ... because ... , ...
catch one ... said.
Can you begin to fill in the blanks?
Does it frustrate you because you can’t figure out what this is about?
Let’s fill in the blanks. The theme today is reconnecting. However, there are people like me who struggle to connect in the first place That’s because I was born hearing-free. I grew up learning how to speak and lipread.
Despite years of speech therapy, I miss a lot because on average, lipreaders only catch one-third of what’s said.
Guess what?
The missing words version shows more than one-third of the words.
Imagine every conversation every single day is like this.
My friend Thomas Logan moved to Japan and he’s learning Japanese. One day, he sent me an image of people talking where one feels invisible. The caption says, “When my friends start talking Japanese.”
I tweaked it and removed one word and sent it back. Now it says, “When my friends start talking.” It’s OK to laugh. (Laughter) Welcome to my world.
Back to my one-third comment. This doesn’t mean I only catch one-third out of every conversation. I may understand some people most of the time ... others ... half the time.
And for those who tend to mumble, talk fast, or have a heavy accent, I may barely understand them. This is painful because I want to know what people say Let’s jump back to 2020 when the entire world changed. Companies scrambled to switch to remote working. I’ve been a remote worker since 2005, Nothing changed for me ...
yet. At this point, most video platforms did not have captions. As the world started relying heavily on video calls, it caused people to be locked out of conversations. For me, it was yet another communication tool that made me feel left out.
But I was used to it. A few months after the world shut down a few major video platforms added automatic captions. That’s when everything changed. Captioned video calls filled in so many blanks.
Suddenly, I could join video conversations and feel included. Also, I no longer had to search the room to find who was speaking. (Laughter) That’s because in-person meetings are like an exhausting tennis match. (Laughter) The automatic captions are not perfect, but it’s progress because I feel more connected, more informed, more confident, more valued.
Now I prefer capturing video calls over in-person meetings.
My youngest finished his last year of high school on the second floor of our home/office/school building. (Laughter) He walked past my office every day and see I was on captioned video calls.
Last year, he went off to university.
One day I got the most amazing ... text message from him. He asked ... if I would like to get on a captioned video call.
That would have never happened without the crisis. It normalized captioned video calls for him. By the way ... Don’t tell him I have this screenshot of him on a captioned video call.
(Laughter) Of course, no one wanted the pandemic to happen. However, history has shown that events like this can lead to changes for the better. In my case, It propelled my career as an advocate for people with disabilities and accessibility. It gave me a new way to communicate and to socialize.
What will you do if you meet someone who is deaf or can’t understand you? Let’s start by making it a habit to communicate at least two different ways. Always have a second way ready to go. It’s so simple.
C’mon, y’all! Wave hello. C’mon. Please wave hello.
Now say, “Howdy.” (Audience): Howdy. Louder for me. (Audience louder): Howdy!
Look at that. Y’all are communicating two ways: visually ... and audibly. And if you don’t have a paper or pen in handy, you most likely always have one of the best communication tools with you.
C’mon, everyone. Take out your cell phones, but don’t check your messages now. (Laughter) Look at that. You have a third way to communicate besides talking and gesturing.
You can use voice-to-text or type on your phone to communicate. And if someone doesn't speak your language, open up a translator on your phone. Problem solved. So, start with a wave and a howdy And have your other communication tools ready ...
to help you ... connect with someone who may feel invisible. Now I’m waving goodbye and signing thank you all. (Applause)
Select the transcript icon (first icon) and it will have the accurate transcripts. The CC come from YouTube, so that’s still on automatic captions.
Visual descriptions
A video appears at 28 seconds. The video stars Makoto Ueki who took it at the beautiful Amabiki Kannon Temple. He does Japanese sign language for part of it. The video shows captions in Japanese. When the captions show [Japanese] with brackets, it identifies the sound of a peacock crying.
He stands next to a Japanese template with one barren tree and one lush green tree. a statue is next to the tree. Behind the tree and statute is the temple in which there are two peacocks doing their own thing. Thank you so much for going above and beyond, Makoto!
At 1:06, the slide shows text with blanks. The audio describes the text.
At 5:50, after I say “I no longer had to search the room to find who was speaking,” I’m moving my head around like watching the ball go back and forth, getting dizzy.