Steve Miller began his career in IT back in the late 1980s. Being a deaf person in tech required a huge amount of effort in organization. Because there was no email or text message service, everything had to be done face to face, or by telephone. Communicating in meetings was very difficult. He needed a sign language interpreter for every meeting, but it was a huge effort to coordinate.

These days, although challenges still remain, it’s a good time to be a deaf person in tech, says Miller. Big advances in speech recognition technology have enabled communication tools to turn live speech into text in real time on your smartphone or laptop, and sign language into text as well.

New Tech coupled with improvements in hearing aid technology and medical advances means that Miller is able to focus far more on his work. He has benefited to a great extent from a tiny hearing device in his ear. It gives him a degree of hearing, and he can use a variety of communication methods depending on the situation. He can employ lip-reading and have meetings via video instead of on the phone. These things have made a huge difference. He no longer has to worry about whether or not he can understand. He can just concentrate on how interesting the meeting might be and what he needs to get out of it in order to progress.

Question 16:What do we learn about Steve Miller?
Question 17:What does Miller say is making things better for people like him?
Question 18:In what way, can Miller benefit from attending meetings via video?