Thread Subject: real-time text

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From: Jim Tobias
Date: Wed, Jun 20 2007 6:25 AM

Hi All,

As drafted on our call monday, the definition of real-time text is:

"Communications that employ the transmission of text wherein the characters
are transmitted by a terminal w/in a maximum of 1 sec. of character input."

I think there are a few problems here:

1. Although the characters are to be transmitted quickly, there is no
reference to how they are handled once they're transmitted. That is, a
server in the middle somewhere could add significant delays by design or
congestion. If we want to make text conversation real-time, we have to make
it clear what the permissable end-to-end delay is.

2. If the intention in this definition was to distinguish TTY-style
(characters are transmitted as soon as they are keyed in) from IM and chat,
where you type a bunch of characters and then press "Enter" to transmit, we
should say so explicitly, somewhere.

3. Most importantly, I don't understand why we would want to exclude the
huge mainstream advantages of chat and IM. I have not heard anything from
the many deaf users of these systems that the "Enter" key imposes a
conversational barrier. Moreover, it is unlikely that mainstream chat/IM
program vendors will modify their programs to transmit character by
character. This leaves deaf and other users still in a communication
ghetto, instead of being able to use the same tools everyone else is using.

******
Jim Tobias
Inclusive Technologies
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