Those Nefarious Building Speaker Entry Systems
By Shane Feldman on Wed 19 Sep 2007 |
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I can’t count the number of times I’ve attended small parties at apartment buildings where the evite/email instructions include a pager address and “email me when you arrive, and I’ll ring you in.” The reason? Their building controls access through a speaker entry system at the front entrance. More often than not, my friend is chatting with the early arrivals before finally reading my message after a good 10-15 minutes. It’s not so bad if you have lively company waiting with you, but not when you’re alone, in the rain or freezing cold (I’ve been in all three situations before).
In another instance, several years ago, a relative had given birth, and my family, along with other hearing relatives went to visit our newest addition. After oooh-ing and ahh-ing over the newborn, I left the hospital wing and traveled through a maze of hallways to get munchies and drinks for everyone. On my way back, I attempted to re-enter the maternity ward by pressing the speaker entry system button and pleaded, “Please let me in. I am deaf and cannot understand you.” Each and every time, I received the typical KITT (from Knight Rider) garbled electronic-voice and unintelligible response, so I repeated myself again and again. The person was diabolically insistent on communicating with me before allowing me in. Yargh! Frustrated, I looked around in vain for some help in the empty hallways. I wound up sneaking in with a hearing person who sang his way into the maternity ward.
Last night, at a county government subcommittee meeting on deaf and hard of hearing people, we were asked, “What can be done to make these systems more accessible?” One person suggested that a strobe light could be connected to the speaker entry system box in the deaf person’s apartment. Has this been done before? If so, where and was it successful? Does anyone have other potential solutions that can be explored?
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Strobe lights are good, but also I suggest putting in a video one. That way, the deaf person can write a note and hold it up to the screen.
That is a fantastic idea!
It also would help with safety issues. If someone rings my doorbell, the buzzer in my apartment goes off, and I have to go down to see who it is. Thankfully my apartment has a windowed door so I can see who it is while I’m walking down the last flight of stairs.
Definitely, and like Sascha said below, it is already happening in Europe. So why can’t it happen here?
In New York’s Tanya Towers, they have video thing where you can ring people in — but not many Deaf ppl liked it because the residents can turn the video on and see who comes in an dout all the time, though. but I liked it.
R-
My late deaf grandparents’s Trump Village Co-op in Brooklyn had strobe lights as well as having a video. Light strobe had been there for a long time but video was more recent. My siblings and I would make faces or me making ILY sign or blowing a kiss after hitting their key #. We would keep pulling the door until it opens up as we can’t hear the beep. It would be nice if they added a red blinking light to alert you the door is unlocked.
Thankfully I haven’t had the chance to encounter this system before. I live in a building that has a buzzer system. Since I wear my cochlear implant most of the time, I’m able to hear the buzzer when the food delivery comes. It’s pretty loud that I’ve joked that it would wake the dead up from their graves.
Noelle,
Another issue came up last night — fire alarms. Most of the fire alarms that I’ve “heard” are too high-pitched that my hearing aids can’t pick them up. Can you hear them with your CI?
I don’t know. One hasn’t gone off in my apartment building yet. However, the alarms here are pretty loud. The one in my office has a strobe light, but you have to look up to see it when it goes off. I rarely look up from my computer, so I do tend to rely on my CI to hear alarms.
That’s a good point to bring up: when I moved into my place, I changed the fire alarm with one that has a strobe light but have no idea about what to do if there’s an alarm during the night. I highly doubt it’ll wake me up if I am sleeping.
Sacha,
That was another thing we discussed. Someone explained that there was a study done which found deaf people can often sleep through their alarms (no surprise here). So assuming a deaf person even hooks up his/her alarm to the fire alarm (does anyone do this?) or has a strobe system in place, it may not be enough to wake them up in time. It was suggested that perhaps the best solution is to install a sprinkler system. It’s hard to sleep through that.
I slept through my alarm this morning. I usually sleep with my CI on so I can hear my alarm go off, which is pretty loud. However, I turned off my implant for some reason, and slept straight through my alarm. I woke up half an hour before I had to catch my bus to work. Eeek!
All I know is that you can purchase a system to connect your fire alarm to a buzzer you put under your mattress (similar to the one for the clock alarm) but is kinda expensive to purchase and install. Not so convenient.
Sprinklers that go on when the fire alarm goes off.. Mmm. What if it’s a minor fire? You would get a ton of water damage from that.
I like Sacha’s idea. That should be tax-deductible.
A Deaf Pundit,
If there’s an actual fire, the sprinklers will go off. Keep in mind we’re talking about a situation where you are sound asleep and the fire alarm is going off. You don’t want to sleep through a fire and save money on water damage.
A lot of apartment buildings in Europe have a camera built in these speakers - each apartment unit has a telephone-like device with a mini TV screen on it mounted on a wall and where you can easily see who is ringing at the door. I’m surprised I haven’t seen anything like this in the US yet.
Sacha,
Good info. I’ll look into this. Can you find a link?
http://althaus-sa.ch/media/Plateapetit.jpg
http://www.elbex.fr/images/EVP4.jpg
http://www.telesecours.com/Fil.....de_amb.jpg
Not exactly the same model I have, but close enough. I would love to have something like that here in the US.
Hi! Yes! the video intercom you talk about exists in the U.S. It has been installed in New York by Elbex America (NY) in Manhattan in a complex with 89 buildings, each building having roughly 100 units in each. Each building has 2 Door Units-front door and back door. The door units contain a camera and the resident inside can se who is ringing at the door outside before letting him/her in. For more info, contact Ron at Elbex America (NY) rtumsuden@elbex-ny.com .
most buzzer systems seem plugged into the telephone system, so the phone rings when someone buzzes. attach strobe lights to those buzzers, and check caller id, and you should be able to figure out that someone’s at the door.
Except that you need to have an active landline phone number or cell phone that’s local to the area… my roommate (who is hearing) and I can’t have our buzzer activated because we both have 240 area codes on our cell phones — considered non-local. The phone company for our area only allows 301 numbers for buzzer activation.
Therefore, strobes wouldn’t work, unless they were attached to the landline phone… i’d like to see a strobe attached to a cell phone. ;-)
Interesting because this had never occurred to me to make sure my place of living is set up so I’d know when the doorbell rings or fire alarm goes off. I definitely don’t hear the high pitch sounds, if i do…I’m never sure what it is!
However, while growing up, my parents had designed the house so each room (except the bathrooms/dining room/master bedroom) had a flashing light installed. so if my parents wanted to call us down, they’d just flash the lights from the living room. or when the phone rang, we knew when it rang cuz the light flashed. and it didn’t look tacky at all. it worked for my family. though we don’t use it anymore.
As for now, I’ve had hearing roommates for a good 3 years & it never occurred to me to do anything about getting a doorbell flasher or have strobe set for alarms. But if anything did go wrong, i always left my bedroom door unlocked, so they could come in and let me know. it was never necessary though, but you never know. I know it’s not the best situation.
Forget the strobe light…. but what about an old-fashioned way? Leave a wedge in the doorframe so all the guests can enter with ease. Of course, the manager might goes “grrrrr, those $%*#@ deafies again!”
The deaf person could become liable for anything that happens when the building’s security is compromised. For some reason I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode where he takes over the doorman’s responsibility, shirks it, and a couch is stolen from the lobby.
Shane, it was said in jest. Only Deaf Goofus would do that :)
Its interesting that building designers or owners are willing to invest thousands of dollars in an antiquated audio alerting system, but complain about installing a cheap video camera. I’ve seen video security systems for less than $500, and that would solve everyone’s problem…
Do what I do…climb into the complex. Every apartment complex has a weak point, you just need to find it.
Additionally, it’s really annoying when you want to find an apartment to rent…but cannot get to talk to the manager without a phone number..then you call a number and a recording picks up….then you leave a number…they call you back and think the relay svc is some kind of telemarketing scam and hang up…
That’s really annoying…so annoying that I don’t bother renting apartments in those types of places…
It is one of my nightmares that doors to all buildings in America will become voice-activated only and we will find ourselves unable to get in these buildings.
*shudder*
But deaf people can use their voices…
It’s not the issue of using voices—it’s hearing the voice that barks back at you from the intercom. Nearly all deaf people can’t understand that.
Also, many deaf people do not speak legibly, so the person on the other end of the intercom may not know who’s at the door intercom.
“Speak legibly”? Legibly means to write in a manner that can be recognized or read. Maybe you meant “speak clearly”?
If you go to m-w.com, type in “legibly,” you’ll see that the second definition which reads, “2 : capable of being discovered or understood,” applies to spoken speech as well.
Well, if you look at the etymology of the word “legible” it comes from the latin word “legibilis” which means “to read.” Same thing for French with “legere.”
To me it doesn’t make any sense any more than I can say that I “write audibly.”
“Audibly” doesn’t mean to speak clearly. It just means that you were able to be heard—it doesn’t mean that your speech was coherent.
Are we going to argue etymology all evening? Heh.
Here’s a better word and probably what you both had in mind:
Speak intelligibly
You know, this once prevented me from attaining a job.
In the year 2000 (or was it 2001? Whatever.), I was looking to work with temp agencies as I sought a new, permanent job. One of the best agencies in the area called me through the relay, we had a good interview over the phone. They wanted to meet in person. So I arrive at their building and to my dismay, find it locked. There wasn’t a lobby with the usual security guard; at least, not from what I could see. I stood outside and waited for a good fifteen, twenty minutes. During that time, I sent the prospective employer an email from my pager explaining the situation and asking if we could please have somebody come to the door or to reschedule. I never heard from them. My best guess is that they simply did not want the bother or added inconvenience. I met with several other agencies successfully, so I know it couldn’t have been ME. Nevertheless, you can be sure that it was (and still is) ALWAYS a question that I ask upon scheduling meetings: “Do you have an intercom required for entrance?”. Never again!
I use the TTY line to function as a doorbell here at work. Visitors dial my extension number in the lobby. I handle all incoming and outgoing calls via the videophone line (T1). It works like a charm.
Shane,
My deaf mother had the similar system to the video survilleance camera within the apartment building facing the front door. Anyone ring in the intercom for my deaf mother. She simply got the flashing phone light connected to the phone system. My deaf mother had to look into the Caller ID for the familar entry number. She just buzzed in anyone deaf or hearing relatives.
My deaf mother sometimes enjoy watching the reserved cable channel for interior survilleance video uplinks within intercom connection. She would turn on the TV set and find out who is at the apartment lobby. My deaf mother witnessed the ongoing burglary via video uplink from her own apartment at the lobby. Someone broke in the apartment management’s office.
My deaf mother could see someone deaf signing on the way to see her or leave on the way.
I was the one who discovered about the reserved cable channel for apartment tenants which my deaf mother was not aware of it til four years later. The apartment management did not inform my deaf mother about the reserved cable channel.
Many apartment and condo complexes just do not want to deal with hassles of ADA laws.
My deaf mother’s West Virginia apartment management complied with the ADA law without her asking for any accessibilty means. That really impressed me in profound way.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
At one time, someone deaf young guy from Charleston (WV) visited me at my deaf mother’s Huntington (WV)apartment (Yes, that’s the same town in the new DVD release - “We Are Marshall” feature film). He came to the intercom and shouted loudly into it. The hearing elderly people at the lobby area, surely got scared to death.
Someone told my deaf mother about this kind of appalling incident right away. She was very infuriated with that deaf young man - “What’s matter with you? You embrassed me! We are not animals!”
Young deaf man replied “I am in habit of shouting into other deaf people’s speaker entry because many deaf people use the baby voice monitor near the interior intercom box to let them know that someone is at the door.
Kinda primitive, but workable for many deaf people.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
I somewhat have a problem with the speaker entry system for office and residence buildings how to get in.
I have to improvise like asking some bystander or people walk by to speak into the intercom to let the resident or office tenant that I (RLM) am here to see you (resident or specific individual). I get buzzed in.
No questions about some people are wary of this kind of request or not want to do it anyway.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
I work for ELBEX which is a 35 year old company that manufactures intercom and video intercom systems for single family and multi family buildings. We are excited to report that Video Interphone has become the norm for new construction and renovations of multi family buildings. Reasons for using video are obvious; to allow the resident to see who is at the door (or concierge) before even answering and to verify that the caller is actually who they say it is. In short, better security which translates to a more appealing building to rent or sell. We have also built high-powered hearing impaired strobes to our video intercom device so that a hearing impaired person would kow when a call in taking place. We can also mount remote strobes for the other rooms in case the intercom is not in line of sight. It is difficult to get these types of products in the minds of builders as there are so many of them out there and most of the time the “price point” is often the leading factor in the selection of these systems, but it should be known that these systems do exist and are available here in the US.
Robert, Utilizing a cable channel for a dedicated cctv signal has been used successfully for years, but unfortunately, as technology changes, so will the functionality. It is my understanding that ever since the Cable companies went digital, they no longer offer the unused channels to modulate the signal on. They use all channels for some tv guide programming or something else. You used to be able to use an FM modulater on the analog signal and that was it. You also have satellite dish technology to deal with as well, so you might have some tenants in a building with cable and others with satelliet, and to make matters worse, now you have Verizon offering Fios, which is phone, TV and Internet over their fiber optic network. The other drawback of putting a signal on the TV is that (as you mention) people can sit there and watch the signal all day. What if there is a bad guy in the building and he knows what time you leave and come home everyday because he watches the TV CCTV signal? We recommend a separate Video Intercom system that allows tenants to see who is there, communicate and open the door, but not the ability to watch all day long.