Breaking a sound barrier

The Postal Service is launching a nationwide push to install videophone devices and services that will make it easier for its 4,000 deaf employees to communicate with their colleagues.

The videophones, known as VP-100s and supported by Sorenson Video Relay Service, are being installed this month at post offices in Boston and Hartford that employ deaf workers. The devices let the deaf communicate directly with one another without an interpreter. When combined with the Sorenson service, which provides 24-hour sign-language interpreting services from remote locations, the videophone can facilitate communication with hearing colleagues.

At least 600 deaf employees at 25 postal sites across the country have been trained on the videophone. The device is being installed at post offices in big cities like Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Denver, and San Jose, Calif.

The VP-100 was adapted to serve the needs of the deaf by James Sorenson Jr., a Salt Lake City businessman whose brother-in-law was born deaf. The device, which is plugged into a high-speed Internet connection and a video monitor, transmits real-time images of deaf workers and of sign language to signing interpreters and can act as a kind of video voice mail for the deaf, allowing deaf individuals to receive signed video messages when they are out.

Deaf consumers say the device is a big improvement over TTYs, text telephones with small keypads and couplers for standard telephone receivers. Invented in 1964 by a deaf physicist named Robert Weitbrecht, the TTY transmits typed comments over a telephone line to a relay operator who repeats them to the hearing individual and then types a verbal response back to the deaf caller, who reads the text on the TTY's small screen.

The 42-year-old TTY system is often fraught with delays, said Young Chung-Hall, diversity development specialist for the Postal Service. A five-minute TTY call could take 25 minutes. The postal service has also hired American Sign Language interpreters, but they are rarely available at night or on weekends.

''We were having a difficult time getting interpreters at 10 p.m. or midnight or 2 a.m., even though some of our deaf workers were working the late-night shift," said Chung-Hall. ''On weekends and holidays, we couldn't get intepreters. We couldn't get them when the weather was bad."

Selena Steinmetz, an education coordinator at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program at Children's Hospital Boston at Waltham, said the video device and interpreting service have reduced the time it takes to make a call to a deaf client or their hearing relatives from 20 minutes or longer to mere seconds.

When using TTY, ''there are always delays, and you can't see the facial expressions of the person you're talking to," Steinmetz said. ''Now, when I make a call to a deaf or hard-of-hearing person, I can see them, and they can see me." Steinmetz is hard of hearing, but reads lips and signs.

Joe Strazzulla, a 57-year-old deaf finisher at Jordan's Furniture Warehouse in Taunton, said the videophone and interpreting services have improved his life at work and at home. His employer relies on the VP-100 and video relay service to help supervisors evaluate Strazzulla's work and keep him informed of policy changes. At home, he uses a videophone to contact relatives.

''I have three daughters who are out of state," said Strazzulla, who was born deaf and uses American Sign Language. ''The videophone allows me to see them and talk to them without an interpreter."

The Postal Service will use Sorenson's Video Relay Service and its video remote interpreting service. Both types of calls are transmitted over a high-speed Internet line and provide deaf viewers with images through a VP-100 videophone.

Launched in 2003, Sorenson's Video Relay Service and the videophone, which was developed in 2002, are being used by several thousand individual consumers and US companies, including Dell Computer, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia Bank.

Before entering the deaf market, Sorenson made video-streaming technology that sent large files over the Internet. But when the dot-com boom ended, the company couldn't find many buyers for the videophone it was selling. That's when it decided to find a new application and market.

The privately held company spent $50 million developing its VP-100 videophone for the deaf market. Now, with the help of government and private contracts, a product that seemed to have a limited future after the downturn is being revitalized.

Sorenson, who learned through his brother-in-law how difficult it was for the deaf to communicate, does not charge deaf consumers or their employers for the videophone, its installation, maintenance, or replacement.

The video relay service, which connects people in different locations, is paid for by a fund established by the Federal Communications Commission under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That law stipulates that providers of interstate telecommunications services must pay a tiny percentage of the money received from consumers into the Telecommunications Relay Services Fund. Currently, there is about $441.4 million in the fund, according to the Federal Register.

Deaf callers can use the videophone, which looks like a portable DVD player, to contact other deaf individuals directly. To reach hearing individuals, consumers use the videophone and video relay service to contact one of 1,500 interpreters at 35 call centers around the country, including Medford. Interpreters are trained to read American Sign Language, as well as facial expressions and body language. They sign a code of ethics that bars them from repeating conversations to anyone not involved in the call.

By contrast, video remote interpreting is transmitted through videoconferencing equipment and is often used for meetings or conferences at one location. With this technology, the interpreter can see everyone in the room. Sorenson, which buys the videoconferencing equipment from California-based Polycom, charges a fee for the video remote interpreting service.

The Postal Service will pay $35 for the first 10 minutes of video remote interpreting and $3 per minute thereafter. The Postal Service is also leasing the equipment for $190 per month per unit.

In the past, it hired on-site interpreters to translate for its deaf employees, but costs ranged from $60 to $120 per hour, with a two-hour minimum, said spokesman Dave Partenheimer.

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.