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I have friends and acquaintances who can sign with the deaf. I also have deaf friends who can read lips. These individuals can understand me, but I am not able to understand them because I cannot sign.
The June 9, 2019 news reporting Roy Allela's award-winning gloves that enable the deaf to audibly communicate with the hearing is spreading across cyberspace. The invention won him the grand prize for the Hardware Trailblazer award at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and second runner-up award at the Royal Academy of Engineering Leaders of Innovation Fellowship in London.
What gave Allela the idea? He has a niece who was born deaf. The niece learned sign language, however, the family has not. Allela realized the communication barrier that might hamper children with hearing loss in schools. His goal is to mass produce the gloves for use in not only African schools, but also schools around the world.
Here is the link to read more about Allela and see his amazing invention: blackenterprise.com
In 2016, two young University Students collaborated on making sign-language gloves. The one had suffered a seizure when an infant rendering him unable to speak. Although he could hear, he used sign language as a means to communicate. The two worked together to create sensory gloves that translate signs to text and audible sounds. The project won them the Lemelson-MIT first place prize. Their gloves are also in the prototype phase. You can read more about these young astronautic engineers at: washington.edu
I think the idea is amazing! A way for those who do not know sign language to communicate with their non-hearing family and friends.
KUDOS TO BOTH TEAMS!
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