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I am in the computer software business and am interested on the take-up of utilities such a Skype and MSN Messenger amongst deaf people.

It seems to me that many deaf people must already enjoy the ability to use email but sometimes in the context of a "conversation" email can be anything but instant. One of the problems is that you cannot see if the person is there to pick up the mail at the time that you send it and another is that quite often people are working across many email addresses and do not see new messages arrive immediately.

It is in this space that instant messaging comes into it's own. The facility to see who is online is a huge advantage and enables the online conversation. The added ability to have more than one person in a conversation can really bring the experience to life.

Other instant messaging facilities such as those which are integral to social networking tools like Facebook do, also, currently seem to be limited to the youth of today. But more and more they are used in a business context. For example in order to find out more about prospective employees, employers will check these sorts of sites to find out more about them.

At the moment the use of such technologies tends to be limited to the youth culture, however, more and more, these technologies are providing real value in a business context too. It could be that this will engender wider use but this could take several years.

I have not yet examined the takeup and promotion of these types of technologies by charities and associations for deaf people. I would be interested in doing so and in the meantime I would welcome an initial response to this article from people who are involved in these areas. It would be valuable to understand their views and experiences and to garner ideas on how this type of technology could be widely promoted. I would also be interested in hearing from deaf people who do use these technologies to find out about this came to be. Maybe it was a friend or a relative who introduced them to it, maybe they work in technology or maybe, just maybe it is already being promoted by an association or charity they work with.

In the meantime many may be going unmessaged because they are simply unaware of the existence of this type of instant messaging technology.

Learn more about this author, Catriona Taylor.
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