Apps – WINAHEAD

Ava: App That Helps Deaf & Hard Of Hearing People Follow Group Conversations

For deaf people, participating in a group conversation, where there’s constant chatter going on among multiple people, can sometimes be painful. Reading lips, trying to hear with a lot of background noise, and keeping track of who is saying what can get tricky, and in many cases, deaf people may either give up on the conversation or just pretend that they are listening.

Ava, an app for deaf and hard of hearing people, makes it easier for them to follow group conversations and keep track of who is saying what without worrying about reading lips or excessive background noise.

The app was released in 2016, and is available for iOS and Android and can be downloaded at ava.me.

The Assistive Technology Blog has a review of the app, as does TechCrunch.

Useful Apps for Students in Higher Education

The disability services office at North Dakota State University (NDSU) has prepared lists of free and low-cost apps designed to support students in Higher Education.

The lists include apps to support the following

Note-taking
Study Supports
Organization
Reading and Writing
Captioning and apps for the Hard of Hearing
Vision
Focus
Math
Stress Management
Communication

Visit this link, https://www.ndsu.edu/disabilityservices/assistive_technology/apps_to_support_students_in_higher_ed/. Once at this site, click on the app category in the left sidebar to explore the various app in the chosen category.

GoCC4All Provides Emergency Alerts and TV Captions

The Dicapta Foundation has developed a free app designed to provide emergency alert information in the users geographic area.

This new app, GoCC4All, delivers emergency alerts for the user’s geographic location in an accessible format for braille displays and screens. Information includes weather alerts and warnings for the general population. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and the Apple Apps store.

GoCC4All also has location capabilities. Location information will be shared only with the person authorized by the user. Location information will be sent when a severe alert occurs in the user’s area. Users can also send location information anytime when they feel at risk. This feature is available only for users that are 18 years of age or older.

The emergency alerts are provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). On May 15, 2019, Dicapta Foundation was authorized by FEMA to use GoCC4All to retrieve and disseminate emergency alerts information from the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

For more information please access the GoCC4All brochure.

The contents of this program are developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90IFDV0004-01-00).