There are 52 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. Less than 1% know American Sign Language. And when most of them try to navigate everyday life — making a phone call, ordering at a restaurant, boarding an airplane — the tools designed to help them are falling painfully short.
This is the reality Chase and John Prieve know firsthand. A father-and-son team and co-founders of Hi There Solutions, they built two award-winning communication apps not from a boardroom, but from lived experience — a family history spanning generations of deafness, a sudden personal diagnosis, and a friend who couldn't even video call someone she loved without the call falling apart.
Here's what they shared with us — and what every caregiver, family member, and person with hearing loss needs to know.
What Does It Actually Mean to Be Deaf or Hard of Hearing?
Hearing loss is one of the most common — and least understood — disabilities in the United States.
Of the 52 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans, the vast majority communicate through a combination of lip reading, residual hearing, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and written text. Sign language, despite common assumption, is not the universal solution people assume it to be. Less than 1% of deaf and hard of hearing people in the U.S. know American Sign Language — and there are actually four official sign language dialects in the country, not one.
What this means practically: most deaf and hard of hearing people are navigating a hearing world without a shared visual language — relying instead on lip reading (which captures only about 30% of spoken words), technology that was never designed with them in mind, and the constant mental effort of filling in conversational gaps contextually.
The Prieve family carries this reality across generations. John Prieve's grandparents, Walter and Anna, were both Big D Deaf — not audible, signers only — during the Great Depression, a time when holding a job as a deaf person was so difficult that the family was ultimately separated, their five children placed on dairy farms across Northwest Wisconsin, never to come back together again. Decades later, John himself underwent surgery to remove a cholesteatoma tumor from his middle ear and was left with severe bilateral hearing loss. His son Chase's close friend Eliza went deaf overnight at age four from a lung infection — the last time she heard her parents' natural voices. She uses cochlear implants, reads lips, understands about 30% of conversation, and does not know sign language.
Their stories are not unusual. They are the norm.
OT Insight: Hearing loss is often called an invisible disability because there are no outward signs. For caregivers, this means the communication burden on a deaf or hard of hearing person is frequently underestimated — and the exhaustion that comes with it goes unacknowledged.
Why Do So Many Existing Solutions Still Leave People Struggling?
The gap between what exists and what actually works is wide — and it affects everything from video calls to airline travel.
Chase built Hi There Solutions after watching Eliza try to FaceTime him from vacation in Mexico. The audio dropped. His video froze. There were no captions. She couldn't read his lips through a pixelated, frozen screen. They hung up and texted the rest of the time. His reaction: Apple prides itself on innovation and inclusivity — so why wasn't something as basic as FaceTime built to be accessible for a deaf or hard of hearing person?
The issue isn't that companies are unaware of accessibility. It's that deaf and hard of hearing users are treated as an afterthought rather than a design priority from the start. As Chase put it: "It's like building a skyscraper with steps but forgetting to put in the elevators."
What Happens When a Deaf Person Tries to Travel by Plane?
John Prieve decided to find out — by booking a round-trip flight and formally requesting deaf accommodations from a major airline.
American Airlines Special Assistance called him two days before the flight. By phone. Despite his profile clearly noting a severe hearing loss.
When he asked what accommodations were available, the first answer was a wheelchair. The second was an escort to the gate — a service designed for blind or low vision passengers. When he asked for written transcripts of overhead announcements, the flight attendants handed him a Braille safety pamphlet. Only 8% of blind and low vision people can read Braille. It wasn't going to help John — or most of the people it was presumably being offered to.
At the return gate, John acted as a fully Big D Deaf passenger — not audible, communicating only in writing. The airline staff exchanged handwritten notes with him. One asked whether he was okay to sit in an exit row — a question that, for a fully deaf passenger who cannot hear emergency instructions, should never have been asked. Then they pulled out a wheelchair.
The staff weren't unkind. They just had no tools.
OT Insight: This is the core challenge for caregivers supporting someone with hearing loss in public settings: the people they encounter want to help but genuinely don't know how. The problem isn't intention — it's the absence of practical, accessible tools in the moment.
What Communication Tools Actually Work for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People?
Two award-winning mobile app solutions — Hi There and Just Talk, developed by Hi There Solutions — were built specifically to fill the gap that existing technology leaves open. Both apps are available on iOS and Android and were developed with the direct input of deaf advisors, influencers, and consultants. Hi There Solutions is the North America Partner of the Year Award winner with Amazon Web Services for Social Impact, and recipient of the Hearing Health and Technology Matters Innovator Award.
Hi There Solutions is coming soon to AskSAMIE. In the meantime, learn more at www.hitheresolutions.com.
What Is the Hi There App and Who Is It For?
Hi There is a video calling solution for smartphones and tablets, designed for deaf and hard of hearing users who rely on face-to-face communication — and for the family members, friends, and caregivers who want to connect with them without a third party in between.
Unlike standard video calling apps, Hi There includes real-time accurate captions that distinguish between speakers, so each person on the call can see exactly who said what. The captions scroll up the screen without ever covering the user's face — critical for anyone who also lip reads. They stay at neck level regardless of device angle.
The app includes instant messaging within the video call, 11 languages, end-to-end encryption, and animated American Sign Language emojis designed by a deaf ASL consultant and two-time Ms. San Antonio, Ms. MFA Rutkin.
For caregivers and family members: if your loved one currently uses a TTY relay service to call you — where a third-party interpreter listens in and translates — Hi There removes that intermediary entirely. You see each other. The captions handle the rest in real time. No one else is listening.
→ Hi There Solutions coming soon to AskSAMIE.com
→ For phone access now: Nationwide Relay Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing — AskSAMIE
What Is Just Talk and When Should You Use It?
Just Talk is a live two-way text chat board built for face-to-face conversations — the kind that happen at a pharmacy counter, a restaurant, a doctor's office, an airport gate, or anywhere a deaf or hard of hearing person needs to communicate with someone in real time.
One person speaks into the app; their words are transcribed instantly on screen. The other person reads, then speaks or types their reply. Both sides of the conversation appear as text bubbles. A text-to-audio feature plays typed messages aloud for the hearing participant. It supports 11 default languages and over 100 languages through Google Cloud Translation.
It takes only one device. A business can keep it at a counter. An individual carries it in their pocket. John tested it at a Rockies game at Coors Field — tens of thousands of fans, one overloaded cell tower — and it transcribed clearly.
Just Talk was created after Chase watched Eliza's boyfriend — who is deaf with a more pronounced deaf accent, because his family didn't have resources for speech therapy — be humiliated at a Jamba Juice when the employee behind the counter turned away from him, looked at Eliza, and asked: "What does he want? I can't understand him." That employee's heart was in the right place. They just didn't have a tool. Just Talk is that tool.
For businesses, Just Talk also helps comply with Americans with Disabilities Act Title III and Title I requirements for customer and employee communication accessibility.
→ Hi There Solutions (Hi There + Just Talk) coming soon to AskSAMIE.com
Frequently Asked Questions About Hearing Loss and Communication
Do most deaf people know sign language?
No — and this is one of the most common misconceptions about the deaf and hard of hearing community. Less than 1% of the 52 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States know American Sign Language. There are also four official sign language dialects in the U.S. Most deaf and hard of hearing people communicate through lip reading, hearing technology, written text, and communication apps.
How much of a conversation can a lip reader actually understand?
About 30%. The rest is filled in contextually, which means deaf and hard of hearing people who rely on lip reading are doing significant mental work in every conversation — working to reconstruct what they missed from what they caught. Background noise, masks, poor lighting, frozen video screens, and unfamiliar accents all make this significantly harder.
Can deaf and hard of hearing people use standard video calling apps like FaceTime?
Standard video calling apps were not built for deaf or hard of hearing users. Most lack real-time captioning, freeze at critical moments, and offer no fallback when audio or video degrades. Apps like Hi There were built from the ground up for this community — with real-time accurate captions, a lip-reading-friendly display, instant in-call messaging, and privacy protections built in.
What should I do as a caregiver or family member when communicating with someone who has hearing loss?
Face them directly, speak clearly at a moderate pace, and reduce background noise where possible. More practically: use a tool like Just Talk that enables real-time two-way communication on a single mobile device. Shouting, exaggerating mouth movements, or speaking to a companion instead of the person directly — these don't help and can cause real harm to dignity.
What phone access options exist right now for deaf and hard of hearing people?
Relay services allow deaf, hard of hearing, and speech-impaired individuals to communicate by phone 24/7, typically at no cost. A trained Communications Assistant relays the conversation between parties. Options include TTY relay (dial 711), Video Relay Service, and Speech-to-Speech relay for individuals with unclear speech due to conditions like stroke, ALS, or Parkinson's. → Explore relay services and phone access options at AskSAMIE
The Bottom Line: Accessible Communication Is a Right, Not a Feature
Every person in these stories — Eliza trying to FaceTime from Mexico, her boyfriend at Jamba Juice, John at the airline gate — encountered people who genuinely wanted to help. The failure wasn't goodwill. It was tools; each of those moments could have gone differently with the right technology in someone's hands.
For caregivers supporting someone with hearing loss, for family members trying to stay connected, and for the 52 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans who deserve to participate fully in every conversation — better tools exist. They're built by and for the people who need them. And they're getting easier to access.
Never miss a word.
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Phone Access & Relay Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing — available now at AskSAMIE
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Hi There Solutions (Hi There video app + Just Talk face-to-face chat) — coming soon to AskSAMIE.com
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Explore all accessibility solutions at AskSAMIE.com
About the Author
Brandy Archie, OTD, OTR/L, CLIPP
Dr. Archie received her doctorate in occupational therapy from Creighton University. She is a certified Living in Place Professional with past certifications in low vision therapy, brain injury, and driving rehabilitation. Dr. Archie has over 15 years of experience in home health and elder-focused practice settings, which led her to start AskSAMIE — a curated marketplace to make aging in place possible for anyone, anywhere! Answer some questions about the problems the person is having and then a personalized cart of adaptive equipment and resources is provided.
