ACCESSIBILITY DEVELOPERS FOR DEAF PEOPLE
Le MESSAGEUR
Cooperative company registered in
France in the field of social and
solidarity’s economy
The company is born on march 2012,
from two deaf associations, which were
still working from 2004 on the same
target.
We received the National Award 2012
for the entrepreneurship in solidary
and social economy :TALENT DE LA
CREATION D’ENTREPRISE
We received the Award 2013 for
initiative in social economy Credit
cooperatif
our skills
 Usability and accessibility for people with
oral deaf or hard of hearing.
 Training for older people friendly services
 Designers of accessibility systems for deaf or
deaf blind.
 Captioners (simultaneous transcripts) , sound
technicians.
 Everything around the help for the deaf
 To be and stay the cheaper as possible .
 The target is to apply the 2005 law for people
with disabilities : Equal Opportunities for deaf
and hard of hearing .
Our daily actions
Hearing Accessibility of events, work meeting,
conferences, participatory days, by caption, magnetic
loops or H. F. system, and we work on the
“customized” sound.
We work with foreign partners to provide
caption in 16 languages(here English-French)
Sound for all people.
(here people without hearing
aids )
Individual magnetic loops can
give multi languages accessibility.
our daily actions
 Consulting for local authorities, about
accessibility of public buildings, public services,
and expertise.
 Accessibility of cultural shows...
 Training for public workers, reception staff.
 But our business core is the next :
Adaptation of the workplace
and support deaf people to
equal opportunities
Adaptation of the workplace and support
deaf people,and so on in private life..
 Each deaf, or each hard of hearing is different, with a
different story, with different capabilities.
 So we do our job in trying to learn, for each, needs
and capabilities.
 Tools and technology come after, being made for
every different need
Each receive a spoken message by different way
 by a part of visual way, with lipreading with
mental compensation to guess the missing
information obtained, with sound, Sign
Language, and so on..hearing aids alone are
not efficient in a lot of situations…
Here , hearing aids are not efficient .
OTHER TOOLS….
Example :
Here is Nelly during her training to become a director of a
health facility, the trainer have a lavallier microphone, 25
colleagues use a wireless microphone ( 1 for 3)
Especially
balanced sound,
come into her
hearing aid, and
she get online
caption from our
services, which
will prevent her
to confusion, and
allow her to
collect the notes
that she can not
take because she
focuses on
lipreading.
Wireless microphone are a talking stick,
it streamlines speaking…
deaf people can not locate the source of sound, the
microphone is then stick speech, so he can read on lips
from the beginning of the sentence, in addition to sound
and / or text, and get a HI FI sound
We are craftsmen in the
ergonomics of the hearing loss
 Our process in individulal or collective help
is:
1 – We only start from the needs, and abilities.
2- We train people living or working around the
deaf to discover the right attitude and skills to
be respectful of everyone in the speaking,
3 - We built an efficient transmission and an
appropriate sound environment, to maximize
remaining hearing abilities.
4- Sometimes, we give simultaneous caption if
the deaf needs it.
5- Sometimes , some microphones and a Bose
speaker are enought .
The challenge for 2014
 Make the deaf blind people use a phone
system.
 We experienced the system last year, it’s
efficient , but requires that the deaf blind can
use the Braille.
 We have been choose to be captionners, on
the new experimentation « National Deaf Call
Relay Center » , with our partner’s
companies, as captionners.
The biggest barriers to success
 First: Ignorance of the general public about hearing loss
causes difficulty putting in place necessary
accessibility. Deaf people are often hard to understand
what they are told, and this fact that we do not realize
their disability.
 Second : the complexity of administrative records. The
right side of the law in France, it is the will of care by
law .. the bad side, it is the very long time to move from
needs assessment to implementation, the number of
decision makers involved in the records, and sometimes
.. we call it a gas plant.
 Third ..To help the deaf himself to accept his disability.
 Fourth. To get the mobile network everywhere for
caption.
 Fifth: Miniaturize sound systems with 5 or 6 excellent
wireless microphones, a powerful speaker, all this , if
possible into an attache-case, create ergonomic tools.
A piece of humour: French gaz factory.
how to overcome these
obstacles?
 1 for the first difficulty, our answers are :
 Awareness-raising and training for relatives
of the Deaf , training managers on knowledge
of special needs, to help the person to handle
himself her accessibility.
 Use our tools as a pedagogic help in training:
using a microphone provides a so good
speaking regulation that people are
demanding sound system even in the
absence of their deaf colleague.
2 Gaz factory ….
 We succed against that big trouble in
building slowly a network of professionals
gifted, who are familiar with the many
processes.

in training us,
 In trying to anticipate issues
 In working late every evening at office ..
3 overcome stigma and avoid
denial
 A lot of people becoming deaf, or hard of
hearing, don’t accept that trouble, some are
in the denial, a lot hide their désability, and
they don’t know their own trouble, and often
refuse it.
 this requires a human approach, allow time
for the person to perform, usually, training
colleagues and relatives allows the person to
the same time this way
4 Mobile network
 for each caption through internet, we have to
test the mobile network, bandwidth, speed,
and c .. we manufacture devices that can
adapt to the wireless, wireline network and c
.. We have to adapt to each situation
 We use computer Shopsystems sharing
applications that are not bandwidthintensive.
5 mini sono .
Opened suitcase : a sound
system able to sonorise a
meeting with 10 people
In this small roll case, we have a sound
system able to give a good sound for
100 people, and a caption system,
individual magnetic loop, a wireless
network provider..
This one have been built for the
needs of one deaf.