Wynd Communications Corp. recently introduced a wireless communications service designed to put deaf and hard of hearing people on equal footing with the hearing community.
The WyndTell service uses Research In Motion’s Inter@ctive Pager and BellSouth’s Wireless Data Network, which provides near-ubiquitous coverage in the nation’s cities. The service includes two-way e-mail with two-way text telephone (TTY) messaging, fax service, voice-to-text and text-to-voice communication.
WyndTell initially is targeted at deaf employees to help them stay in contact while traveling. However, Dan Luis, chief executive officer of Wynd, said usage patterns show subscribers use the service as aggressively on the weekends as they do during the week.
“It has become part of their life,” he said.
Founded in 1994, Wynd was focused on wireless e-mail and data services until February of last year when Luis received an e-mail from a deaf woman saying current wireless devices were not meeting her needs. She asked him to commit Wynd to providing a wireless service for the deaf.
Wynd looked at the market for such a device and determined it existed with as many as 28 million deaf or hard of hearing citizens in the United States. The company restructured itself around the new initiative, which included sign language and cultural training and the hiring of several deaf employees.
Wynd spent 18 months researching, developing and testing WyndTell.
“I have traveled extensively in my work throughout most of my professional career,” said Robert Davila, via the WyndTell service. Davila is vice president of the Rochester Institute of Technology and director of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
“Years ago finding a TTY in public places was a real issue. It is still true today,” continued Davila, who noted he knows of only one TTY phone station in all of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Davila said he used to carry a compact TTY device when he traveled, but now relies on the WyndTell device.
Dave Binning, a technical lab specialist at a Fortune 100 computer hardware manufacturer, said he often would receive notice via a pager that he had a TTY message waiting in his office while he was in other buildings on his company’s campus. To return the call, he would have to return to his office to use a TTY device. If he needed to let his boss know he was running late for a meeting, Binning would ask a hearing person to make a call or find a computer to e-mail his boss.
Gary Meyer, a senior marketing representative for SafeCo Insurance, said WyndTell “puts me on the same level as hearing people as far as being reachable.”
WyndTell subscribers must pay a monthly service plan fee as well as purchase or lease the device. Service plans start at $20 per month for the basic plan and go up to $40 per month for the premium plan. The pager is priced at $500 or can be leased for $35 per month plus tax. A one-time activation fee of $49 also is assessed.
