About John

John is a software engineer at General Electric and uses Ava Mobile at work and in his everyday life. Learn more about John's journey with Ava through his video or with the transcripts below.

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How has Ava helped your life?

Before Ava, I'd have to rely on lipreading or using paper and pen, or typing to communicate. It was frustrating to me, because it slowed down the conversations. Occasionally, we'd have group meetings where I didn't have an interpreter with me. I'd have to give my phone to a person who is speaking, and then I'd use another phone to read the text. Supposedly I don't have an interpreter, I will not understand what is happening with my team, or what they are working on, or what the issues they are having. I am not in the loop.

Ava puts me in the loop of information exchange in my team. When I bring my phone to work, I'd start Ava on it, and then ask someone else to start their Ava on their phone too. That person can start speaking into their phone, and I can read what he is saying right away. I can understand what he is talking about from my phone. And I can text and reply back to him, so that person can understand me too.

I can't hear anything, but I still can follow the conversations using Ava. With people who don't know sign language, I can understand them and I can text back to them. I liked it when people use Ava to communicate with me because it felt fast. It didn't feel slow as it did in the past. With lipreading, they had to repeat themselves often. I wanted to know everything, every single word. I appreciate being able to understand what people say. Every word is important.

I also used Ava for meetings outside of my work. For example, today I volunteered with my group from GE. We went upstate to the Double "H" Ranch. We raked the leaves. After we finished, we went to a restaurant for lunch.The people who worked with me wanted to communicate with me. I showed them how to install Ava on their phones and almost everyone installed it on their phones. As soon as we all were connected, I enjoyed being able to watching people either texting or speaking into their phones, and still understand the conversations.

Ava is valuable. It's an important technology to help those who communicate with hearing people. It's good for when you couldn't get an interpreter, or if you go out and socialize with people. Any time you need to communicate, start Ava on your phone, and tell that person to speak into it. It's wonderful to be able to understand anyone.

I hope Ava will evolve eventually to have the ability to become the solution, the answer for the communication needs that everyone knows about. That we will use to meet our primary needs. I hope people around the world will use Ava, especially in other countries to communicate with each other.