New Helmet Levels Playing Field for Deaf Players

Shelby Bean could not help but feel a bit jealous. As a deaf football player for four years at Gallaudet, he called defensive plays with American Sign Language and dealt with other obstacles hearing opponents never need to worry about. Now an assistant coach, he was on the sideline earlier this season for a milestone at a school accustomed to them: The debut of new technology that allows plays to be displayed visually inside quarterback Brandon Washington's helmet—a welcomed step that happened to coincide with the team's first win of the season. "We go through a lot of challenges," Bean said. "And we try our best to level the playing field in any way possible."

Gallaudet has been trying to level the playing field for the deaf and hard of hearing community for more than a century. The helmet, developed with AT&T 129 years after quarterback Paul Hubbard invented the football huddle, is just the latest example of how the private school has been an incubator for deaf technology in use around the world. The innovations outside sports date to at least 1965, when Gallaudet was responsible for the first Dictionary of American Sign Language. The school has since pioneered the use of video phones on campus and the development of translation and ASL recognition applications. Current work includes ways to improve the accuracy of closed captioning.

The technology involved in the helmet could help firefighters, construction workers, and first responders in noisy situations while giving the deaf and hard of hearing improved access to jobs and everyday activities. The helmet tech works with the push of a button on a tablet on the sideline. The play is beamed over 5G to a tiny, nearly transparent screen in the quarterback's helmet. Since its debut in that early October win, Gallaudet's Chuck Goldstein has received dozens of messages and calls from youth coaches and parents asking where they can get it. The school's head coach since 2010, he cautioned that it's just a prototype, used under a one-game waiver by the NCAA. His hope is to get it approved for full-time use moving forward. "This is just the beginning," Goldstein said.

(More deaf community stories.)