The world is often made first, for those without disabilities, and then accommodations will be added.

Oftentimes, though, the accommodations still come up short, leaving many disabled people behind.

But a pair of Stanford University students have decided they want to help using new technology, to make life a bit more even for those who are deaf.

Madhav Lavakare, CEO of TranscribeGlass, and his co-founder, Tom Prtisky, said they were inspired to work on new ways to help deaf people communicate, after Lavakare had a friend drop out of highschool because communication was too hard for him. 

Lavakare said he couldn’t understand why there wasn’t anything that would have been able to help his friends stay in school.

Why isn’t there something that can help my friend participate in conversations in a mainstream setting,” he recalled asking himself.

Pritsky, also a founder of the school’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing club, said he has had bilateral hearing loss since he was three-years-old. He uses hearing aids and lip reading to understand what others are saying. But he always dreamed of having something like the project they are now working on.

The new TranscribeGlasses. Photo courtesy of TranscribeGlasses

“I really like captions for movies,” Pritsky said. “I thought it would be fantastic to have them for real life.” 

The pair began making samples of the glasses, while searching for people to help test them out. 

“I was an 18-year-old kid who didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t have a plan for college. Investors would sometimes just laugh me out of the room,” Lavakare said.

But, after a lot of hard work, the students were able to find support from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. They were also able to gain funding from the U.S. and Indian governments.

The goal was to have a product that was affordable and would convert speech to text, similar to what you can use on your cell phone when you want to send a message instead of texting. 

Options include allowing the user the ability to change the size of the text they see, and can help in places that are crowded, which often can overwhelm hearing aids.

Originally, the test version of Transcribe Glass sold for $55, and will likely be no more than $95 when it hits the market.

“The majority of people who can use hearing aids simply don’t use them due to a myriad of factors, one of which is cost; with the lower range starting around three thousand dollars,” Lavakare said.

Pritsky said that for some, hearing aids, as well as cochlear implants, aren’t usable by everyone. 

@transcribeglass captions for real life — the TranscribeGlass story (pt. 1) special shout out to @Jason Carman and his series, S³ #foryou #fyp #startup #accessibility #hearing #assistivetech #ai #tech ♬ original sound – transcribe

“If you put me in a bar, I have a really hard time,” Pritsky said. “There are conversations where I primarily nod along; my understanding drops to 20% at best.” 

One person who got a chance to try the device was Cathy Haas, a lecturer in the Stanford Language Center who teaches American Sign Language.

A man trying on the new TranscribeGlass. Photo courtesy of TranscribeGlass

“I was a little bit skeptical at first, but then I put it on, and I fell in love with it,” Haas said in American Sign Language with an interpreter present. 

The two released a video on TikTok and quickly racked up millions of views. Commenters had plenty to say.

• “OK AS A SCIENTIST I NEED SO MUCH MORE INFORMATION PLEASE”
• “Subtitles in real life?” “Yes please!!”
• “This is one of the best inventions I’ve seen in a long time”
• “This is the future.”

For the two men, knowing how many people needed a device like this, and hearing how excited they are, makes it worth it.

“It’s been really encouraging and satisfying to see how much people resonate with the product,” Pritsky said.

Take a look below at the duo’s invention.

Sources: My Modern Met | Stanford Daily