People who are Deaf

Assistance in your home

Challenges around the home for people who are Deaf

People who are Deaf face various challenges in their homes, including communication barriers with hearing family members and service providers, lack of knowledge about accessible technology and alarms like smoke detectors or doorbells, difficulty with independent living skills such as managing finances due to support gaps, risks of isolation from communication difficulties, and inaccessible physical environments that aren't adapted for their needs. These challenges can be compounded by a lack of tailored support and accommodation, leading to significant frustration, vulnerability, anxiety and depression.

Following are just some of the common challenges around a home associated with being Deaf:

Visitors Accessing their Home
Communication Challenges
Home Security
Social Isolation
Difficulty with Activities of Daily Living
Anxiety and Depression
Personal Safety
Risks of Fires

Positive outcomes for people who are Deaf

Automated Spaces offers a variety of Independent Living Technology solutions that can provide a broad range of positive outcomes for those people who are Deaf:

Increased Independence
Improved Access to Environment
Improved Dignity
Improved Home Safety
Improved Communication with Others
Reduced Sense of Loneliness/Social Isolation
Reduced Anxiety/Stress
Increased Personal Safety
Increased Confidence
Reduced Risk of Fires

Some of our Independent Living Technology solutions also can provide the following outcomes for those caring for people who are Deaf:

Reduced Demand on their Time
Increased Quality of Time with Family Member/Friend
Reduced Stress/Anxiety
Faster Response to Emergency
Improved Communication with Service User

If you would like to know more about how we can provide these outcomes

Click to call us to discuss our solutions for the Blind

Independent living technology solutions for people who are Deaf

Automated Spaces can provide the following Independent Living Technology solutions for people who are Deaf:

See the following sections for further details about the independent living technologies for people who are Deaf.

Smart home scenes

Smart home scene, that can simultaneously automate numerous actions around the home e.g., ‘Visitor Present’ scene that automatically sets the brightness of light fixtures, throughout the home at an appropriate brightness light level, making it easier for lip-reading.

Useful for those that need to lip read.

Smart home hub

A Smart Home Control System acts as a central hub for a wide range of 3rd party devices and variety of differing manufacturer’s products. It translates the communications between these different devices, which use differing programming languages, so that they can all share information with the central smart home control hub. The hub can then co-ordinate the appropriate resulting action, based on the incoming signals, on the relevant devices around the home.

An example could be when a doorbell is pressed by a visitor at the front door, the control hub can activate a sensory alarm indicator device like a flashing light beacon or a vibration pad. A text message, stating “the doorbell has been pressed”, can also be displayed on the TVs around the property, or on wall mounted touch screens as well as a push notification can be sent to a mobile phone. The house lights could also be programmed to flash on and off as a warning signal

The same type of alerts When the intruder alarm is triggered, a smoke alarm is activated or if a contact sensor detects that a door/window has been left open too long

For people who are Deaf the integration of these different types of systems (doorbells, intruder alarms and smoke alarms), can provide a variety of benefits:

Help facilitate visitors accessing your home
Improve the safety of your home
Increase your personal safety
Reduce the risk of fires, etc.

Useful for those people who need to be alerted to events but can’t necessarily hear an audible alarm. Great for alerting people who might be asleep and therefore wouldn’t be able to see visual indicators.

Internet connected doorbell

An internet-connected doorbell or intercom system that can alert a resident in several different ways that a visitor is at the door and has pressed the doorbell.

The press of the doorbell can generate any of or all the following types of appropriate alerts:

Sensory alarm indicator device can trigger e.g.,
Beacon light can begin to flash
Portable pager can vibrate and flash
A wrist strap can vibrate
A vibration pad, placed under your pillow, can vibrate
A text message, stating “the doorbell has been pressed”, can also be displayed on the TVs around the property
Similar text messages can be displayed on wall mounted touch screens
Push notifications can be sent to mobile phones
The house lights could also be programmed to flash on and off as an indicator or warning signal

A photograph of visitors, along with a time stamp, can be kept. Visitors at unusual times can be highlighted for review to ensure that the resident is not being exploited by rogue callers to their property.

Useful for those how are unable to hear audible alarms such as the notification sound generated by a doorbell button press. The logging of visitors is also useful for reducing the resident’s vulnerability to exploitation.

Circadian rhythm lighting

LED light fixtures that can have their colour temperature automatically altered, gradually throughout the day, by a Smart Home Hub. This allows the LED lights to mimic the changing colour of the sun rays outside through the daylight cycle i.e., a warm brownish/white 2700K first thing in the morning at sunrise, increasing to a brilliant white 6000K in the middle of day, then gradually cycling back to the warm brownish/white 2700K by sunset.

These lights could also be programmed to increase in brightness while a visitor is present. Making it easier for the resident to be able to lip read what the visitor is saying.

Useful for people who are Deaf and need clear lighting to be able to lip read.

CCTV recognition event activation

CCTV cameras that can recognise elements such as the presence of people or a car on a driveway and even identify specific vehicle number plates.

Detection of known number plate can trigger events e.g., a family member’s car could trigger an alert informing the resident that their family member is arriving. Or the presence of a person on the driveway could trigger an alert that there is someone on the drive.

A video and/or snapshot image of visitors, along with a time stamp, can be kept. Visitors at unusual times can be highlighted for review to ensure that the resident is not being exploited by rogue callers to their property.

Useful for those that can’t hear visitors arriving onto their driveway, knocking on their front door or pressing their doorbell. The logging of visitors is also useful for reducing the resident’s vulnerability to exploitation.

Nudges

Alerts generated by the activity monitoring, in the right circumstances, can trigger a suitable action on the smart home hub to support an individual to help themselves in the first instance e.g., if someone hasn’t had a visitor in several days. Rather than sending an alert to a third party to step in and check on the person, we can trigger a ‘Nudge’ to encourage the person to consider reaching out to speak with a relative. This could be a text message appearing on a TV display or a push notification sent to a mobile phone.

With the added reassurance that if the person doesn’t respond to the ‘Nudge’, then after an appropriate amount of time, this issue will then be escalated to a third party for them to take the required action.

Useful for those that may be prone to social isolation and/or loneliness.

Smart intruder alarm

A smart intruder alarm, typically will be connected to the Internet, meaning that it’s status can be checked even when away from the property. If the intruder alarm is triggered an alert, suitable for someone who is Deaf, can be made within the home.

These alerts could be:

Sensory alarm indicator device can trigger e.g.,
Beacon light can begin to flash
Portable pager can vibrate and flash
A wrist strap can vibrate
A vibration pad, placed under your pillow, can vibrate
A text message, stating “the intruder alarm has been triggered”, can also be displayed on the TVs around the property
Similar text messages can be displayed on wall mounted touch screens
Push notifications can be sent to mobile phones
The house lights could also be programmed to flash on and off as an indicator or warning signal

Useful for those how are unable to hear audible alarms such as the siren sound generated by the triggering of an intruder alarm.

Smart mains power sockets & adaptors

Smart mains power adaptors who’s on/off status can be remotely checked; the adaptors can also be remotely switched on or off; or using a smart hub we can activate a timer that automatically switches off power after a certain amount of time.

Smart mains power wall sockets that can be remotely switched on or off.

Useful for those people who are at heightened risk from fires as the power to appliances, which can be a fire risk, can be automatically switched off e.g., clothes irons, hair dryers, etc.

Layered home security

Layered home security systems that includes an Intruder alarm, CCTV system, window/door contacts and automated door locks fully integrated with a smart home hub, that can provide notifications/alerts, suitable for a person who is Deaf, of any unusual activities.

Useful for those who want the reassurance that their house is fully secure.

Visual indicators

Visual indicators e.g., flashing lights in relevant rooms or a pop-up message on their TV screen to alert them that someone has pressed their doorbell.

Useful for those how are unable to hear audible alarms such as the notification sound generated by a doorbell button press.

Halo sensor

Detect a wide range of anomalies including loud sudden noises that might warrant further investigation or at least notification of the noises occurring. Examples of loud sudden noises could include:

Aggression
Crashes
Gunshots

Useful for those people who are unable to hear loud sudden noises that could be a potential security or safety concern.

Sensory alarm indicators

A selection of sensory alarm indicators ranging from Flashing Receiver Beacons, Alarm Clocks and Portable Receivers that can have an optional Bed Shaker Vibration Pad to alert a resident to an alarm should they be asleep.

The sensory alarm indicators can be triggered from a variety of transmitter devices e.g., doorbell monitor, smoke alarm, mobile phone sensor as well as a smart home hub. This means we can notify a resident of the need to check their smart home user interface (mobile phone application, touch screen on wall, TV display in their room, etc.) to find out what event has triggered an alarm.

Events could be any of, but not limited to, the following: someone has pressed the doorbell at the front door, the smoke alarm has triggered, a nudge is being displayed in the smart home user interface, etc.

Useful for those how are unable to hear audible alarms such as the notification sound generated by a doorbell button press, etc.