Blog has a new home

The blog has been moved to a new home with new possibilities and better quality videos. There is a new post about location aware messaging for accessibility:

benfletcher.com

I hope everyone’s well and had a good summer holiday.

SignVideo

For more about SignVideo, have a look at their bilingual website. AtW is short for Access to Work run by the government.

Transcript:

Hello.

Today I’m very excited because I’ve just read
that SignVideo has an understanding with AtW

where AtW can now provide me with funding to
use their services for communication support.

This I am excited about. I’ll explain why.

The current situation is that I have to book
for an interpreter to come onsite at work

which works well but I still have to book
each appointment for a minimum of 3 hours.

This means I have to, sort of, formalise my meetings
by having them fixed and arranged back to back.

Each meeting would usually be half hour or an hour
with colleagues.

The thing is that, although it can work well,
it can be at times inconvenient

as I really like having informal conversations
where I can come to work

and say “hello, how are you?” and have a 5-10
minute quick chat about, for example

how work’s getting on – a short meeting.

With my current interpreting arrangement, this is
not really possible.

The reason is that if you want to use an interpreter,
it has to be for a minimum of 3 hours.

For an informal 10-minute chat at a random time,
this is not possible.

Here is where SignVideo comes in. You can book
an interpreter for only 5 or 10 minutes.

Isn’t this useful?

Additionally, working with people who like to do
do a quick phone call with a brief enquiry -

I can use TypeTalk, but TypeTalk can at times be
a problem – it works but can be… slow and not easy.

SignVideo can be used instead to do phone calls
using two-way sign langauge.

Wonderful service.

For Deaf professionals, it’s important to be able to
network with people, with colleagues at workplace.

This SignVideo service can really help achieve this.

An exciting prospect!

I remember 2 or 3 years ago I met with Jeff and
I was amazed at the possibilities of this service.

We were in Belgium and we

could easily connect to London to communicate with
people there through interpreters from London.

Incredible!

In America this is highly thrieving and very
popular. In the United Kingdom, however

it has been slow with legislation from
the government being unsuitable.

Despite all this, SignVideo has been
doing remarkably well and is growing.

I really hope SignVideo will continue this
growth and reach out to the rest of us.

So if you are a Deaf professional in the
United Kingdom, please give it a try.

You may find you like it and that it can really
enables and empowers you in your job!

That’s it. Goodbye.

First experience as a Brit in the USA (ASL)

I’m continuing to learn ASL.

Name Signs

This BSL video is in response to Charlie Swinbourne’s great What’s your Sign Name? article (in English with a BSL video and photos).

Deafblind manual

New to American Sign Language (ASL)

Please note: I’m a beginner at ASL, look elsewhere – for example, Joey Baer, if you want to see ASL properly signed.

Vegetarianism – a disability or personal choice?

See also Jeff’s post mentioned in the video.

BSL compared to English

Purpose