Chap­ter 10: The Face­Time Rev­o­lu­tion unfolds the com­pelling sto­ry of Kei­th and Car­ol Adams and their son Trevin, born deaf on Feb­ru­ary 11, 2005. While genet­ic tests had ini­tial­ly giv­en the fam­i­ly some hope that Trevin might not have any hear­ing impair­ments, the con­fir­ma­tion of his deaf­ness by the doc­tor came as a sur­prise. Car­ol, ever opti­mistic, reas­sured Kei­th by say­ing, “Don’t wor­ry about it,” empha­siz­ing that their son’s health was the most impor­tant thing to them. Their response set the tone for the jour­ney ahead, one in which Trevin’s deaf­ness would become just one aspect of his vibrant life.

As Trevin grew, his expe­ri­ence dif­fered great­ly from that of his par­ents. While Kei­th and Car­ol had relied on out­dat­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tion meth­ods such as TTY devices, which were often cum­ber­some and slow, Trevin was raised in a world where tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments cre­at­ed new oppor­tu­ni­ties. He pri­mar­i­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed using Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage (ASL), which he learned both at home and in school. With the evo­lu­tion of tech­nol­o­gy, the world Trevin nav­i­gat­ed allowed for near-uni­ver­sal cap­tion­ing on tele­vi­sion, mak­ing infor­ma­tion more acces­si­ble, and mobile devices such as smart­phones made tex­ting and video calls via Face­Time an inte­gral part of his dai­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tion. This rev­o­lu­tion in com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy ensured that Trevin’s abil­i­ty to con­nect with oth­ers, whether deaf or hear­ing, was only a tap away.

By the time Trevin enrolled at the Cal­i­for­nia School for the Deaf, River­side (CSDR), his world had become seam­less­ly con­nect­ed, and the com­mu­ni­ca­tion bar­ri­ers that once hin­dered the deaf com­mu­ni­ty seemed almost nonex­is­tent. The intro­duc­tion of the iPhone by Steve Jobs in 2007 marked a turn­ing point for the deaf com­mu­ni­ty, rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion in ways that pre­vi­ous tools like TTY devices could not. Face­Time, in par­tic­u­lar, played a piv­otal role, allow­ing Trevin and oth­ers in the deaf com­mu­ni­ty to engage in face-to-face con­ver­sa­tions, break­ing down the iso­la­tion that had once been a part of their real­i­ty. For Trevin, these tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments not only facil­i­tat­ed smoother com­mu­ni­ca­tion with his peers but also fos­tered stronger rela­tion­ships, help­ing him inte­grate into the broad­er social fab­ric more eas­i­ly than his par­ents had ever imag­ined pos­si­ble.

The gen­er­a­tional dif­fer­ences between Trevin’s upbring­ing and that of old­er deaf indi­vid­u­als are stark­ly illus­trat­ed in the chap­ter. Ken Wat­son, a coach born in 1952, rep­re­sents an ear­li­er era of the deaf expe­ri­ence, one defined by iso­la­tion and lim­it­ed access to com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Wat­son’s sum­mers were filled with lone­li­ness as he relied on let­ters to stay in touch with his friends, a far cry from Trevin’s con­stant con­nec­tiv­i­ty through his smart­phone and Face­Time. The con­trast is jarring—where Wat­son had to wait days or weeks to hear from friends, Trevin com­mu­ni­cates instant­ly with both his deaf and hear­ing peers, reflect­ing a seis­mic shift in how deaf indi­vid­u­als inter­act with the world around them.

Car­ol, like many par­ents, express­es con­cern about the impact of tech­nol­o­gy on her chil­dren’s lives. She rec­og­nizes the poten­tial risks of screen addic­tion, a com­mon con­cern among par­ents today, but she also acknowl­edges the incred­i­ble advan­tages mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy offers. The access that her chil­dren, espe­cial­ly Trevin, now have to edu­ca­tion­al resources, com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools, and social con­nec­tions far exceeds what she had access to in her youth. Carol’s state­ment, “The access for the kids is amaz­ing,” under­scores the pro­found shift that has occurred in how tech­nol­o­gy can bridge gaps and cre­ate new oppor­tu­ni­ties for the deaf com­mu­ni­ty. As she observes, while tech­nol­o­gy comes with chal­lenges, the ben­e­fits it pro­vides are immea­sur­able, enabling her chil­dren to have rich­er and more con­nect­ed lives than ever before.

This chap­ter encap­su­lates the trans­for­ma­tion­al impact tech­nol­o­gy has had on the lives of deaf indi­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly in terms of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The advent of tools like Face­Time has made what once seemed impossible—instant, real-time communication—readily avail­able. The evo­lu­tion of mobile devices and dig­i­tal plat­forms has allowed the deaf com­mu­ni­ty to break free from iso­la­tion, pro­vid­ing them with a sense of belong­ing in a way that was unimag­in­able just a few decades ago. This tech­no­log­i­cal rev­o­lu­tion not only improves the lives of those with­in the deaf com­mu­ni­ty but also enhances their abil­i­ty to inte­grate into broad­er soci­ety, cre­at­ing a more inclu­sive world. Through these advance­ments, the line between the deaf and hear­ing com­mu­ni­ties is grad­u­al­ly being erased, mak­ing the world more con­nect­ed and acces­si­ble for every­one.