I read that the American Red Cross gets flooded with requests for bed-shaker/strobe alarms for deaf and HoH households, but they cost $250–300 and they can only install a handful a year. After one local news story, 200 households requested one.

So I made a cheaper version. It's a tiny computer (a micro:bit) that just listens for the smoke alarm's beep and flashes a bright strobe when it hears it. It works with whatever alarm is already on your ceiling — no pairing, no special transmitter — because every US smoke alarm is legally required to beep in the same rhythm.

Being honest: this is a prototype, not a certified product. It is NOT UL-listed (that costs tens of thousands of dollars) so it should be used alongside a real alarm, never instead of one. I'm a high school student and I'm sharing it open-source in case it's useful or someone wants to build on it.

Would love feedback from people who actually use strobe/shaker alarms — what works, what doesn't, what I'm missing.

I thought it would be fitting to post about Kaylee Hottle, the Deaf actress that tragically passed this week.

I have never interacted with her but I was in the same room as her at a Deaf event in Austin. I think I asked my kids if they wanted to meet her but they wanted to do something else. I've been in a solemn mood all day. Texas School for the Deaf has made this post about her passing.

It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland.

A robotics company has started shipping a robotic hand that allows DeafBlind people to receive phone calls, notifications and other digital information through tactile sign language.

One user, who had lost her vision 40 years earlier, used the system to call her daughter. Other users are using it to contact family members, check the weather and access information without relying on another person to interpret it for them.

I am currently 21 weeks pregnant with my first child. This will be my mother's first grandchild. She desperately wants to take care of the baby day and night when myself and my husband need a little helping hand. Having a grandchild to care for is what she's been dreaming of for years. But she's worried about the night time that she won't be able to because when she takes her cochlear off to sleep she is completely deaf. She's toying around with wearing it 24 hours a day but it's so uncomfortable for her she doesn't know if it will work out.

Do any deaf parents or grandparents have tips on what we can do to help my mom live out her grandma dreams?

Hey! I'm Hard of hearing, most of the vídeos i watch don't have subtitles, i mostly rely on lip reading and blasting up the volume, today i was watching a react of a YouTuber i really like, the video he was reacting to would have a few subtitles adding explanation to the content and some others transcribing conversation (occasionally), the cam of the YouTuber was on top of the subtitles so it would end up covering some words, people complained on the chat(he was live) and he just said: "i'm reading it out loud, what's the point of reading it if you can hear?"

I got pretty annoyed about it, i know the majority will never really think about the minority so i don't really blame him for his ignorance, but it really frustrated me, i even decided to stop watching videos for today because as i said most of them don't have transcription and the automatic transcription aren't very reliable, so i just wanted to share my feelings with you, bye.

(Also sorry for any language-related mistake, english is my second language and i'm not so good at it😅)

My younger brother is in his mid-30’s and has never had a girlfriend. I’d like to help him find his special someone.

Are there any dating apps specifically for the deaf community? He is in Los Angeles, CA.

I’m a hearing mum of a deaf 14 year old boy. We are in Australia.

Over the years we’ve experienced some interesting comments and questions as I’m sure many deaf people have.

But in the past year or so, I’ve noticed a number of people that are saying “I’m basically deaf too. I know exactly what it’s like for your son because I’m autistic/have auditory processing disorder/speech problems/sensory issues”

I get that people are sometimes simply trying to make a connection or find common ground, but this is… more than that and it’s starting to irk me.

Is this happening in other countries or is this just unique to me?

Hi there! I am looking for input, advice, help, reassurance or anything at this point…. We’re desperate….

My deaf toddler is currently 20 months old and is absolutely the hardest kid we have ever encountered. She has always been a “hard baby”, since birth she was a whiny, wiggly baby and constantly needed to be held by mom. To rock her to sleep took FOREVER and had to be borderline aggressive. We recently had another baby (who can hear) and they are polar opposites so I know it was not “normal baby behavior.”

Our toddler now is hell on wheels from the moment she wakes up to the time she is asleep. She gets into everything, and constantly tests her limits with us. I know some of it is toddler behavior however she seems to be the EXTREME level of chaos. She will do things over and over and over AND OVER even after we redirect her, lightly smack her hand/bottom or tell her no. She will scream and whine ALOT through out the day sometimes for no real reason. Most things we do/not do end up in tears, screaming, whining and a tantrum. She is very difficult to redirect or be told no without causing a tantrum. Her tantrums consist of screaming, closing eyes so she can’t see us sign, shake off her cochlears off so she can’t hear us, she will also smack her head on the ground or wall occasionally. She also throws a fit everytime her diaper/clothes are changed and screams and cries the whole time. She constantly drags and pushes us to get her snacks all day even when I know she’s not hungry. She loves her older brother and likes to play with him but she could not care less about the new baby and honestly hasn’t really acknowledged her new sibling in the past two months other than to steal a binky from the baby’s mouth. The only way I can get her to sit still, not endanger herself or scream/whine is to give her my phone with YouTube. We try to use it honestly as a last resort rescue and will do everything for most of the day before we can’t take it anymore and just give in.

My spouse has a son and helped raise another child through the same age in his previous relationship. I asked him if they were anything like this and he says our toddler is by far harder than any thing he’s experienced.

We use ASL and spoken language with her. She definitely has a language delay due to her deafness and a struggle to get access to therapy in our area. But I don’t feel like her delay justifies how terrible of a toddler she is. She was born deaf and bilaterally implanted with cochlear implants at 12 months old. My spouse and I are both hearing. However I am a CODA and very fluent in ASL. We try to sign with her however she does not always sign back or use them appropriately or independently until prompted. We just started a program in the last month that has Speech therapy and AVT for her twice a week.

We just don’t know what else to do at this point…. We are tired of fighting her EVERYDAY ALL DAY! We are often saddened by it. We are even more sad at times because we get so frustrated with her that we end up yelling at her. We never want this behavior to impact our relationship with her. We love her beyond measure. We don’t want her to feel disconnected from our family due to our frustrations with her. I also don’t want to take away quality time from my other children due to her behavior. I don’t want her to be labeled “the bad one” which some family/friends already have.

I do have a fear that she has autism as well however I don’t feel like she ever stopped in her progressive skills, and idk how much is just due to her delay in language. I just don’t know if she could even be diagnosed this young.

We just need help, we have no idea what else to do at this point…….

Hi, a question about the nature of borrowing words from other languages while signing. How does it work, how common is it, or maybe it does not exist?

e.g. Would would you do if you wanted to sign a name of a foreign dish or use some cool foreign slang word?

Hey guys , I want to start learning the sign language but im not sure if learning the ASL would help me communicate with the people in my area cuz of the language differences, I’m from Libya and i dont know what is the language used here and where to learn it

I’m a very heavy sleeper in combination of being deaf, and have been looking for a bed shaker alarm that gradually increases vibration. I’ve had a bed shaker alarm the past ten years, put on the highest vibration and underneath my pillow. It does the job, however, I often wake up with my heart racing or getting jump scared from how sudden it is. I would like a bed shaker that has the vibration intensity, but instead of starting at the highest vibration it starts at low and then increases the longer the alarm goes off.

In case anyone's thinking of risking a regular screening of The Odyssey without subtitles, don't do it. Wait for a subtitled version.

I was like, there's no masks or nuclear explosions in this one, how unintelligible can the sound be? It's a guy wandering round hitting things with swords, I'll be fine without subtitles.

The sound is dull as always. Anne Hathaway spends a lot of her scenes behind a partition that hides her mouth so anything she says is gone. I've got no idea who half the supporting cast were because their names are hard to follow. Background noise like rough waves or explosions swallows up the dialogue. It's the same old complaints about a Nolan film. You'd think I'd learn after seeing the Batman film with Bane and being so bored with not being able to understand it that I had a nap in the cinema. I saw Oppenheimer twice with subtitles and that was awesome!

It's a great film when you can hear what they're saying and 10/10 recommend seeing it but oof, what does Christopher Nolan have against deaf people? Did someone with a hearing aid kick his puppy or something.

Hope it’s okay for me to post, I’m going to see an ENT very soon but I already struggle with hearing issues/sound localization ….

It’s frustrating because people know about me not being able to hear well anymore but still don’t face me when I’m talking to them or speak lowly. I’ve had one had their back facing me and I couldn’t understand what they were saying at all. Don’t get me wrong, I tell them when I can’t understand them. I get closer. I speak up at times. But it just gets tiring. Why am I the one accommodating others all the time?

I have a friend who is very sweet. She's so freaking sweet and she is completely deaf. She sometimes has briefly said that she feels lonely. What can I do to support her? (Without being disrespectful or condescending) I don't want to be insensitive but I'm not completely deaf. Just hard of hearing. Thank you so much, guys.

Hello everyone! I work the customer service desk at a busy retail chain and I have been ringing out customers who are deaf or hard of hearing a lot recently. I just wanted some advice on what is respectful in checking out people who can’t hear. Is there something I can do that helps make it easier for you guys? I have been just scanning everything, bagging if there’s a lot of items, and pointing on my screen the total of the transaction, but I wasn’t sure if the pointing was rude. I just want to be accommodating as possible!

Has anyone else found it easier to ask for accommodations in some situations than others?

I’m hard of hearing, and I have no problem requesting an ASL interpreter or other accommodations for concerts and public events. But when it comes to work, I hesitate.

I think part of it is feeling like I’m inconveniencing my employer or asking them to go out of their way for just one person. Even when I know an accommodation could help me do my job better, it’s much harder for me to ask.

For those who are Deaf or hard of hearing, has anyone else felt this way? Do you find it easier to ask for accommodations in some settings (like concerts or public events) than at work? Why do you think that is?

Can you read the captions wearing the 3D glasses? Or do they have special 3-D glasses that caption?

Hello guys

I was just on a website and it has an option to change it to sign language. Then there are just a couple of videos without sound of a guy speaking in sign language.

I just dont get the why? Maybe I am just stupid, but can't wrap my head around what the benefit is. Sound (text to speech) for blind people is clear, but I mean you can see and read. So why should you use the website in another way than me for example?

I’m a college student taking ASL courses and am very interested in becoming an interpreter. I’ve known people who would get their right and left confused so much, they tattooed an “R” and an “L” on the back of their hand. What is your opinion if you had an interpreter who had 9, 8, 7, and 6 on their hand respective to each number?

For context, I am late deafened and had average hearing for the first 35 years of my life.

I have been deaf for several years now, and generally tell someone that when I interact with a stranger. Most recently, it was a gate agent at the airport. The hearing person says some version of “you speak well” or even “you don’t sound deaf.”

I am not at all a confrontational person, so I deflect. I said to the gate agent “Oh, I haven’t always been deaf.” And I let it go. But I really need to stop letting it go and find a way to tell these people that saying that is patronizing and not an appropriate thing to say to a deaf person. I just can’t think of a way to word that.

But maybe I just need to start being as rude as they are. It’s just that I know most of them say that with good intentions. Most of them.

Maybe I’m actually just venting.

Hello everyone. Nice to meet you.
I have some hearing loss caused by damage to my eardrums from overexposure to loud noises. My dumbass teenage metalhead self never thought of ear protection while blast beating...

Anyhow. My grandmother is deaf. She's 80 and it's getting worse. She uses a bespoke hearing aid, which does help a lot, but we still have to be mindful when speaking to her. Since I am a tad deaf myself, I learned very effective ways of communicating with her. Generally, we get along just fine. She doesn't know sign language, and neither do I, but both of us hear enough that with some simple changes to how we speak, we can converse totally fine.

There is one exception, however...
She lives in a gigantic apartment. The kind only baby boomers could buy. I have the keys and have an open invitation whenever. The problem is that, very understandably, she doesn't use her hearing aid when alone in her apartment.

How do I get in without scaring the hell out of her?

Given her age, this is an actual safety hazard. The size of the apartment means turning on the lights sometimes just isn't enough. She used to have a Pomeranian, and he'd do the work of warning her (and the rest of the building) that she had visitors. Sadly, he has since passed away of old age and is now bothering GOD HIMSELF.
Furthermore, trying the phone runs into her not hearing it ringing and/or just forgetting where she placed it in that palace of hers.

I have a bone conductor headset that helps me tremendously, but I see that they have bone conductor amplifiers that amplify in-person voices as a cheaper alternative to hearing aids. Anyone have an opinions on brands or functionality needs?