About Me
Hello there.
Yep, my name is Sam Sit. Sometimes I think it’s like a superhero name since both of the words have the same amount of letters and start with the same letter. Anyways, I am a rising third year majoring in Computing and Information Technologies. I’m from Quincy, MA.
Some fun facts about me
- I was a member of the “first” deaf youth magicians Club.
- I am a competitive Ballroom Dancer.
- I am Ballroom Dance Club’s current president.
- I am an Honors Student.
- I am a member of Archery club.
- I am NTID Student Congress’ Director of Finance.
- I like watching animes.
- I like playing video games.
- I like to share this with everyone.
My Blog
About My Mentor
Raja Kushalnagar
- PI and Mentor
- he/him
Raja Kushalnagar is the Director of the Information Technology program in the Department of Science, Technology and Mathematics at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. His research interests encompass the fields of accessible computing and accessibility/ intellectual property law, with the goal of improving information access for people with sensory disabilities. He also serves on organization board committees that focus on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in computing fields, including the Computing Research Association – Widening Participation, Teach Access and Special Interest group on Computer-Human Interaction. He has mentored 91 plus undergraduates and 8 graduate students. He can be reached at raja.kushalnagar@gallaudet.edu.
Christian Vogler
- Co-PI and Mentor
- he/his
Dr. Christian Vogler is a professor in the School of Science, Technology, Accessibility, Mathematics and Public Health. He also is the director of the Technology Access Program research group. He leads and co-leads multiple research grants that focus on accessible technology for the deaf and hard of hearing. Topics include video relay services, captioned telephone services, closed captions for TV and streaming video, better consumer control over hearing aids and cochlear implants, next-generation smart home alerting systems, and accessibility of voice interfaces.
Linda Kozma-Spytek
- Mentor
- she/her
Linda Kozma-Spytek is Senior Research Audiologist in the Technology Access Program of Gallaudet University. She also co-directs the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Technology Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center at Gallaudet University, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. Her research includes investigating the use of Internet Protocol- Captioned Telephone Service (IP-CTS), the compatibility of digital cellular telephones and hearing aids and the accessibility of VoIP telephony applications for individuals with hearing loss. She is active in standards development and public policy that addresses communication technology and services and serves as a Technical Adviser to Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).
Norman Williams
- Mentor
- he/him
Norman Williams is the senior research engineer for Technology Access Program. He is deaf and has an AAS degree from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Electro-Mechanical Technology, and a BA from Gallaudet University in Computer Science. He has an extensive background in telecommunications used by people who are deaf. He wrote various text/video applications and for servers, including the popular TTY software for PCs known as Futura-TTY. He wrote a white paper for Federal agencies to use firewall information for videophones independently from outside companies. He invented and patented a new way to communicate in AIM called Real Time Text with IM preview used by AOL and AT&T Relay. He lead an ASCII standard effort for interoperability between TTYs with an ASCII option. He also has explored video communication technologies and worked with various companies such as ISDN, Internet, and phone based video calls before video relay service started. Williams worked as a Research Engineer in CSD. He did some software engineering and some hardware research for the video relay service. Recent projects at Gallaudet are: developed WebRTC with Real Time Text on each video chat, VRS interoperable tests, developed sharp flashing for smart lights for sleepers and bright environments and developed to experiment on new ways of show captions in web videos.
Katja Jacobs
- Graduate Mentor
- she/her
Hi everyone! My name is Katja and I’m from Seattle, Washington. Since graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health last March, I’ve been researching health disparities and quality of life in the Deaf community as an intern and research assistant at the Center for Deaf Health Equity at Gallaudet University. In the fall, I’ll begin my Master of Public Health at Boston University. With a concentration in Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation, as well as Global Health, I hope to work with marginalized communities and to expand consideration for deaf populations in the field of public health.
About My Project
The purpose of this research is to increase the accessibility of captions in WebRTC and RTT in order to ease the transmitting of information during a conversation between a user speaking orally and deaf or hard-of-hearing users. In this paper, we look into which settings are preferred and if they are influenced by a multitude of factors. We propose that WebRTC applications include an option for dynamic caption, which is a setting where the caption is displayed next to the speaker’s head, and a texting setting that allows RTT communication in a letter-by-letter format, as captioning options. My Final Report