You're assuming ALL deaf people have access to these things. Many do not make more than minimal wage. Many do not have access to these things.
For example...yeah, VPs are free...but internet is not.
When the telephone first came out, it really hindered and handicapped a lot of deaf people in terms of communication...it was someone else who invented the TTY...and went from there.
Drive thru speakers...not helpful. Alarm systems ...many are not deaf friendly. Onstar...talking gps installed in a car...not helpful. Intercom at school...nope. Those are the examples I was thinking of.
No. No assumption was made on my part. Please do not ASSUME for me. I said "deaf people" and not "ALL deaf people."
Necessity is the mother of invention. There will continue to be new ideas, new innovations and new inventions to help bridge that communication gap even narrower. Laws and awareness can help with these things and have. Now, these inventions were geared toward hearing people since some 90 to 95% of the population do benefit from these things. it's a simple marketing target which it help to create demands and brings down the price. Doing so bring further innovations for the niche market areas. The thing is...don't wait for them to create something for you. If you think you have a marketable idea for a product for deaf/hh people then create a company. That is exactly what sComm, Inc did when Jason Curry, (he's deaf) started his UbiDuo (see
sComm | Freedom Through Communication ) business and it's now booming. That's what Jason Yeh, who is deaf also, did when he wanted to build a communication device that at least 10% of the U.S. population would be eager to use (see
Viable helps deaf callers connect - Sep. 15, 2008 ). Somebody created iSign for iPhone which is a graphical sign language reference tool (see
Review: iSign | Apple iPhone Apps).
What I don't like to see is whinning of the things deaf/hh do not have. Rather I'd like to see some bootstrapping take place instead. I'd rather see people make a concerted effort to inform companies on the marketing benefit to include in the designs that would help with the rest of the 10% of the population people with hearing loss (e.g. such as your reference about the talking GPS but remember you still cannot and should not take your eyes off the road when driving but then again use your imagination on how this can be corrected/adapted for deaf/hh people...i already know how).
In the beginning, people whined and bitched about Youtube lack of CC features. Now, they have it and the CC list continues to grow. Same for Hulu.com with tv's and movies there were no CC. It's all about getting early adoption accepted by the masses first which means 90% of the population that's hearing and then it's up to deaf/hh to help these companies become aware that there is an active and willing population of deaf/hh people that they can do business with.
Again, early adoption leads to more innovations and ideas on top of it. That's how things get started. The key is not to sit back and whine, pitying poor you about these things. We didn't even have the technology today 7 to 10 years ago. That wasn't very long ago and it'll certainly be a different picture 7 to 10 years from now, too. More access, better communication and improving equality.