Don’t be fooled by all the equipment that’s “out there.” Keep your eye on the main communication problem facing deaf people: THE NEED FOR INDEPENDENT FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION WITH HEARING PEOPLE IN ENGLISH. Readily available inexpensive face-to-face communication equipment solves this problem. Superior equipment is being developed by the Electrical & Systems Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.

Modern Deaf Communication recommends good, cheap, amazingly lightweight TTYs modified for face-to-face communication. Currently, Walker-Ameriphone is the only manufacturer producing this equipment. Retails less than $200 per unit. This is their Q90 Model D. It weighs around 1½ lbs, can hook up in seconds with as many other Q90s as you wish for conferencing or classroom use, and can be used with cell phones and for regular telephone communication.

On her own, Carrie carried two of these Q90s weighing around 3 lbs. total into job interviews, set them up in seconds, and was off and running, and winning, using English face-to-face with employers (see THE STORY OF CARRIE, Main Menu). She arranged the interviews entirely on her own. No deaf person ever did this before. The Q90s gave her the independence of action which enabled her to secure the interviews.

Laptops are not a good choice for face-to-face communication. They cost a fortune, weigh “a ton,” are costly to hook up to other laptops. Importantly, laptops are over-functioned for the purpose of face-to-face communication. Hooking up 3 or more laptops is technically difficult and financially prohibitive. You can hook up 6 or more pieces of face-to-face communication equipment for the price of one laptop.
FREE SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS ARE AVAILABLE TO MODIFY TTYs TO BECOME GOOD FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT. See Diagrams for Modification of TTYs. Modified TDDs can still be used to make phone calls. Parts cost around $2.00 per TDD.

THE SORENSEN METHOD, AN OPINION

Gallaudet University administrators express great love for The Sorensen Method, but, sadly, this method is already a dinosaur and it does nothing to help a deaf job-seeker become employed. The Sorensen Method emphasizes the dominance of interpreters for which employers and more and more literate deaf people have little use. It is designed specifically to use interpreters in order to assist the illiterate deaf.

It does not address the main problem of deaf people independently communicating face-to-face with hearing people in English, especially hearing employers and co-workers. It has no value in the workplace.
It is my understanding that the Sorenson method is going out of business. It will die, because it is not making money. It is losing money.

The Sorenson method does not enable deaf people to share and communicate face-to-face with hearing people in English.. With all its technical hoopla, the Sorenson method emphasizes and requires a deaf person’s dependence on interpreters, and this is bad.

Those Gallaudet University administrators who favor the Sorenson Method are protecting interpreters when they should be helping qualified deaf job-seekers get the best of all possible jobs – jobs requiring face-to-face communication in English in the workplace. The administrators are kidding themselves. They cannot produce any evidence which shows that the Sorenson Method is helping any illiterate deaf people, or literate deaf people, find good, sensible employment. Administrators at Gallaudet University are doing nothing to correct the terrible job placement performance of the Career Center, the worst of any school in the country.