Summary
In the final installment of this three-part CareLab series, Chase and John Prieve share how personal experiences with hearing loss inspired them to create innovative technology that improves communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. They introduce Hi There, a captioned video calling app, and Just Talk, a real-time face-to-face communication tool designed to make everyday interactions more accessible in healthcare, travel, restaurants, businesses, and beyond. Through practical examples, they demonstrate how thoughtfully designed technology can eliminate communication barriers, protect privacy, and empower individuals to participate more fully in daily life.
Key Questions Answered
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What is HiThere, and how does it improve communication?
HiThere is a video calling app built specifically for Deaf and Hard of Hearing users. It provides real-time captions during video calls, distinguishes between speakers, supports multiple languages, and allows users to communicate directly without relying on third-party relay services. -
How is Just Talk different from Hi There?
While Hi There is designed for video calls, Just Talk facilitates face-to-face conversations using a single smartphone or tablet. It instantly converts speech to text, includes text-to-speech functionality, supports over 100 languages through translation, and enables communication between Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and hearing individuals in real time. -
Can these apps be used in noisy environments?
Yes. The hosts discuss how Just Talk performs well even in loud settings such as busy restaurants or sporting events. Its speech recognition technology accurately transcribes conversations, making it easier for users to communicate in places where hearing is especially difficult. -
Who can benefit from these communication tools?
These apps are valuable for individuals with hearing loss, family members, caregivers, healthcare providers, businesses, and customer service organizations. They help make communication more accessible in everyday situations, from medical appointments and pharmacies to travel and family gatherings. -
Why are solutions like Hi There and Just Talk important for accessibility?
Chase and John emphasize that accessible communication should be a right, not a privilege. By reducing dependence on interpreters, improving privacy, and enabling direct communication, these tools promote greater independence, inclusion, and compliance with accessibility standards such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Transcript
Brandy Archie
Dear CareLab listeners, welcome to part three of our series on solutions for deaf and hard of hearing so you can do the fun stuff that you want to do in your life. And we're so glad to have our guests with us again for the third part of this episode. If you have not heard their story and also the challenges that they've experienced, you need to go back and listen to those other two episodes because today we're talking a little bit more about solutions.
Emilia Bourland
That's right, we're gonna be talking about how the experiences that we learned about in parts one and two of this series turned into innovation and real solutions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. So we're so excited to welcome back today our guests here.
Brandy Archie
Yes, and so if you haven't had a chance to know our guests, they are John and Chase Pree, a father and son duo who founded a company called Hi There Solutions and are really on a mission to try to make sure that accessible communication becomes a right instead of the privilege that it is. So thanks guys for being back one more time.
Chase And John Prieve
Awesome Brandy, Emilia this is awesome. Thanks for having us on a third time So today we're gonna talk about our two award-winning solutions I'm going to talk about hi there our video calling solution Design for deaf hard of hearing by deaf hard of hearing that covers a broad range of hearing loss and deafness My dad's going to talk about our other solution just talk and when I say award-winning, I'm talking about North America
Partner of the Year Award with Amazon Web Services for Social Impact, Hearing Health and Technology Matters, Innovator Award for our mobile apps and the captioning within it for deaf and hard of hearing. So you heard the story of my friend, Eliza, trying to simply FaceTime me. As you recall, Eliza, she's deaf, uses cochlear implants, cannot use a telephone, relies on video calling when she wants to talk with somebody, right? And we had a horrible experience.
trying to use FaceTime when she was on vacation. So as a result of that experience, my dad and I developed HiThere. It's a video calling solution for smartphones, smart tablets. It's available in iOS. It's available in Android as well. It's device agnostic. It's real simple. You pick up your smart device, select in your HiThere contacts, list who you want to HiThere, tap them, and it's just instant video communication.
It has real time accurate captions that distinguishes between who said what. So if I wanted to hide there, my dad, I can see what my dad said. I can see what I said just and he can too. What's great is our captions scroll up the screen, kind of like the beginning of Star Wars, but we never cover a user space. So if you read lips, there's no hindrance to it. And it doesn't matter the angle of your device. The captions always stay like right here at neck level.
It has instant messaging within the app as well. So you can text, still see the other person while you're texting them in the video call. It has 11 languages. And what's really cool is animated American sign language emojis in the instant messaging chat board. What's really cool is one of our deaf advisors, influencers, Ms. MFA Rutkin, two time Ms. San Antonio. She's deaf. She designed them for us. So our solutions were created for deaf, hard of hearing, by deaf.
part of hearing. You know, kind of in a contextual way, it's really great. It's a really great tool. If you just wanted to check in on a loved one, family member, and they might have hearing loss, they need captions, they're deaf, they need captions while they're trying to communicate with you. It's a really easy accommodation to just check in, see how are you doing, have a conversation, they feel connected, they feel connected in a way that's accessible and meaningful for them.
Right? So that's our first solution. Hi there.
Brandy Archie
So, okay, so does that mean that like, okay, for example, for me, I have an aunt who's deaf, big D deaf. And so currently she calls me with like a translator, like a TTY, right? And she's signing and that person is talking to me. So instead I could have the app and my aunt could have the app on her phone. And then we could, she could call me by clicking hi there. And then I can see her and also hear her voice, but then she could also get,
a transcription of what I'm saying on the screen, like captions on the screen so that we can not have an intermediary between us and we can talk to each other.
Chase And John Prieve
Correct, exactly. So it gets rid of that third party listening in I mean if I wouldn't want a third party listening into the conversation I'm having so you can see what she's saying you and she can see what you're saying right there on your screen in real time Super accurate. We're also encrypted end and we don't sort any record of your conversation for privacy reasons, right?
Emilia Bourland
awesome. That's awesome. Okay, so tell us about the other solution that you have as well.
Chase And John Prieve
You bet. So we created a second solution. It's called Just Talk Live Chat. And Just Talk Live Chat, Just Talk I'll call it, is in the Apple App and Google Play Store. And it is a text chat board solution, if you will, for smartphones or smart tablets. And it allows for, as you open up the application, Just Talk,
It allows for a two-way live conversation between two people. think of, again, deaf people do the same thing hearing people do. They go to the bank, they go to a pharmacy, a doctor, they travel, they order at restaurants. So think of that live two-way conversation where a deaf or hard of hearing person, such as myself with a severe hearing loss, just need captions in order to be able to communicate accurately.
in an accessible manner on your mobile phone, for example, right there in real time. So this solution provides real time speech to text, so transcriptions between each of the two speakers. It also has that text to audio, so as that text bubble appears on the screen, you can hit play, and now Siri, if you will, is now stating what was in that text bubble.
It has instant messaging, text to text, right within that as well. So if you're big D deaf, you're not audible, you're able to text out your message while the hearing person across the counter just simply speaks. And then it also has, as Chase described for, there, these animated American sign language emojis. What's very, very cool, two more things.
is that there are 11 different languages that you can select from in your account profile to be your default language. Let's say you want to have English as your default language for transcriptions, fine. But there's 10 other languages you can pick from as that default. Lastly, we've added Google Cloud Translation. So we have translation capabilities in over 100 different languages within that app.
This is perfect for that live two-way conversation and it really helps businesses as well as individuals, but businesses specifically to comply with the Americans with Disability Act Title III and Title I for customers and employees within those businesses. So a terrific, terrific solution and we're really, really proud of these two awards Chase described that we've won in recognizing the type of solution and trying to...
improve accessibility and inclusivity for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Emilia Bourland
Okay, I have a couple questions for you. First, okay, so my dad actually has profound hearing loss. He's a bilateral hearing aid user and it's really impactful. I mean, I know personally how deeply impactful this is. One of the things that's really hard for my dad to do, as you talked about before, is go out to restaurants and even have like a big family.
Brandy Archie
So go ahead, Emilia. You go, go, go.
Emilia Bourland
gathering where we're all like loud and talking blah blah blah. That's really challenging for him to keep up with the conversation and engage because he's not picking up a lot of what people are hearing. In a restaurant or noisy background situation, does this still work? Because I could see it being way more challenging, but that's such a, it's profoundly life changing to not be able to engage socially in those contexts.
Chase And John Prieve
Absolutely, just talk works beautifully in a noisy situation. In fact when we were beta testing it I used it at Coors Field I went to the Rockies game and I wanted to order a hot dog and a soda I go up as you can imagine Coors Field. I don't know if you've been it's big It has tens of thousands of fans that attend every game. It's noisy and everybody's using one cell phone tower typically So it's slow for if you got cellular, right? So I pulled out just talk I speak into it
Beautifully gets transcribed in a very noisy environment turn around person reads it tapped the microphone first behind the counter Says okay. Do you want a soda with that? I turn around. Yeah. Yeah, I do and How much how much does that cause they see it and they just talk so works great on again in that face-to-face one-on-one live conversation
Emilia Bourland
That's awesome.
Brandy Archie
So.
That makes total sense. So that means it only needs to be on one device. So either if I'm the business, let's say I'm American Airlines and I want to make sure that I can, I have good tools. We talked about this in the previous session. They just didn't have as good tools to offer you. They could have this on a device and then whoever walks up to them, if they notice that we're dealing with hearing loss, they could like whoop that out. And then now we can communicate that way as opposed to like writing notes. But me as a personal user, I could also have it on my own device and then be going
Chase And John Prieve
you
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Brandy Archie
back and forth with people whenever I need to so it creates accessibility no matter what. that kind of that the goal?
Chase And John Prieve
Yeah, you nailed it exactly. So anywhere you want to use the words of face to face live conversation brandy, you're exactly right. And just like, there, anything that is said on just talk or how it's used, we have no record of it. It's automatically deleted. It's encrypted end to end. We're not into, you we're going to steal your data and privacy, right? That's not our business. No. Yeah. Brandy and Emilia really does sum it up. It's anytime, anywhere, any device, mobile device.
So deaf or hard of hearing individuals never miss a word. And it's just beautiful technology and much, much needed within the deaf and hard of hearing community. Yes.
Emilia Bourland
Okay,
this is really cool. I can see, like I'm specifically thinking of scenarios in my own life with my own family where like, I'm gonna use this. This will be really helpful. Can you say one more time, I know you said it's on any mobile device, Android, iOS, how it's, so can you share with us just one more time, what are the names of the apps and.
Chase And John Prieve
Mm-hmm.
Emilia Bourland
what's the best way for people to access them or just to learn more about what y'all are doing.
Chase And John Prieve
Sure thing. So the two apps are Hi There, which is a video calling solution. Our other solution, Just Talk, both are available in iOS and Android. Just Talk is meant for face-to-face communication. Best way to learn about it is on www.hithersolutions.com and coming soon with asksamie.com as well.
Brandy Archie
That's right, can find it there too.
Emilia Bourland
Yay!
Chase And John Prieve
Yes, you can.
Which we're excited about. Are excited about.
Brandy Archie
Well, we're so grateful for you guys coming. Also really grateful for you seeing a problem and then also coming up with a solution because that's not easy to do. And it's so important to be able to have some people advocating because otherwise we just are continuously complaining. Not that for lack of that complaining isn't good. Like we need to say these things out loud, but we also need to give people tools to make the situation better for everybody. So thank you for the work that all are doing. And dear CareLab listener, if you made it to the end of this episode, we appreciate you.
Make sure you like and subscribe so you can know exactly when our next episode comes out because we're putting it out more frequently just for you. So until next time, we'll talk to you later. Bye.
Chase And John Prieve
Bye.
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