Multi-modal Interfaces for Interaction-Communication between Hearing and Visually Impaired Individuals: Problems and Issues

One important and challenging problem in human interaction is the communication between blind and deaf individuals. The challenge here involves several cases: (i) first case is a deaf person usually does not speak in order a blind person to hear him/her; (ii) second case is when a blind person speaks a deaf person cannot hear; (iii) third case is when a deaf person makes sign language signs a blind person cannot see them. Thus, this paper presents a study on multi-modal interfaces, issues and problems for establishing communication and interaction between blind and deaf persons. A system-prototype Tyflos-Koufos is proposed in an effort for offering solutions to these challenges.