ATU760 – SignGlasses with Monique Clark

Hi, this is Monique Clark and I’m the chief operating officer of SignGlasses, and this is your assistive technology update.

Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 760 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on December 19th, 2025. On today’s show, we’re super excited to be joined by Monique Clark from SignGlasses to talk about the great things that they offer. We’ve got a quick story about assistive technology in Liberia and Kenya, as well as we’re joined by our friends from BridgingApps. So let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

As you may know, one of the things we do here at the INDATA Project is offer full day trainings throughout the year. And I’m very excited to announce our first full day training of 2026 will be over JAWS. No, it is not a recount of the movie, nothing with sharks today, but this is actually a free JAWS screen reader training. It’ll give participants valuable insight into how JAWS can enhance computer access and independence for individuals who are blind or have low vision at work, at home, in the community. This full day training will take place on January 15th, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time and is 100% online. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about screen readers, about how individuals who are blind or low vision access computers and the internet and everything else this is a great training for you. Also, if you happen to be looking for CEUs, you can get CEUs from attending this training also. Presenters include members of our vision and sensory team from our clinical assistive technology program here at Easterseals Crossroads.

Belva Smith, Jim Rinehart, Justin Amber, Lindsey Wells and Sarah Crawford, all from our team will have different presentations and walk you through how to do some great things with JAWS from keystrokes to working in Google, Outlook, setting the program up and accessing common Windows and web elements, all of it will be touched on. There will also be plenty of time for questions and answers in order for you to maybe bring up some of the things that you’ve always wanted to know about this screen reader.

So again, I’m super excited to announce our very first in data full day training of 2026, JAWS, screen reader full day training. And again, not the Giant Shark. This is JAWS, Job Access With Speech The Screen Reading Program. While this training is completely and totally free to attend, you do need to register and I will put a link down in the show notes where you can easily go find that registration, fill out the information and get all set up. So we hope to see you there on January 15th for our JAWS, Job Access With Speech Screen Reader, Full Day Training. More information is available over at eastersealstech.com or check the show notes for the link to registration.

Listeners, our story this week comes to us from the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and it’s titled, Unlocking the Power of Assistive Technology: How Liberia and Kenya are Delivering Locally Led Solutions. And the story talks about the Clinton Health Access Initiative and how they’re working with communities in Liberia and Kenya to really kind of get assistive technology in the hands of individuals that can use it, but they’re doing it in a very kind of different way.

So as you might know, in a lot of countries, access to assistive technology is not, well, something that’s accessible. It could very well be that there’s not very many doctors, not very many rehab specialists, not very many assistive technology folks. Things can be expensive. I mean, some assistive technology is very expensive. It could be expensive to import, to bring in and really just to get access to. So this kind of talks about working with the community schools and local craftsmen in order to get kind of access to assistive technology and to things that can really help folks just be able to participate a little bit more.

So a lot of what it talks about here is, it always takes a village, talking about working with a lot of different organizations from Build a World Of Play, Restoring Our Children’s Hope, World Hope International, and the governments of these countries trying to shift support from centralized facilities where there may be one doctor for a country into homes, neighborhoods, and local areas in order to be able to have folks be able to get the assistance that they might need.

So just one of the things it talks about here, they were able to help train two local carpenters to build standing frames, corner seats, splints, 90 degree chairs, and accessible commodes so that individuals would be able to use them. It says that, “Under guidance from rehab specialists and using standardized designs, they were able to produce 82 devices for 25 children in one month alone.” And these devices averaged in costs from about 30 to 50 US dollars, which is a whole lot less than these devices would cost if you were buying them, especially once you think about trying to import them and bring them all the way into a country that may or may not have the infrastructure to really get them there.

So super kind of cool story. I will put a link to it so if you go over, there’s a lot more in there about them adapting games, working with schools, educators, and other folks, just to be able to let them know of different ways to assist individuals with disabilities and different tools that might be out there to help them, as well as how to make those and how to really adapt those on a budget and very inexpensively.

So I just kind of chose this story because it’s really nice to see some things in some countries that maybe we don’t think about too much when we think about assistive technology. I mean, let’s not lie. Some things do get a bit expensive. I understand why. I understand why that cost is there and everything else, but it does make it inaccessible, especially to folks who just do not have the means to be able to get it. So I really like this kind of initiative to try to do this sort of grassroots kind of homemade assistive technology and be able to get those tools in the hands of individuals that can use it. So I’ll put a link to this over in the show notes, so you can go and check it out for yourself. And coming up next on the show, we welcome back BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Scarlet, your memory coach. Scarlet is a multimemory game filled with an array of games that challenge every aspect of your memory. The free version of the app allows you to play in visit mode, which gives you access to 13 games. The app is designed for older adults and seniors to help stimulate cognitive abilities, but may also be beneficial for users recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Each activity is designed to stimulate various parts of cognitive function. The games vary in content and difficulty and test an array of concepts. The app covers all areas necessary to keep your memory intact. Our reviewer works with older adults and they have trialed the free version. Users found the Scarlet app easy and interesting. Scarlet, your memory coach, is currently available for only iOS and is free to download. For more information on this app and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Today, listeners, we are super excited to welcome Monique Clark to the show. She’s here to tell us about SignGlasses and we cannot wait to hear all about them and how they’re increasing access to ASL interpreting and captions to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Monique, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I am excited to get into talking about SignGlasses, but before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Yes. Thank you. So as you said, I’m Monique Clark. I am a CODA, which means Child Of Deaf Adults. Everyone in my family is deaf or hard of hearing, except for myself, my brother, about three or four cousins, everyone else deaf or hard of hearing. So as you can imagine, I’m very passionate about assisted technology and how we can work together to make sure those who need access to clear communication, great solutions for communication in their environments, that’s what I’m all about.

So I’ve worked in the ASL interpreting industry for more than 20 years. I’m rooted in accessibility and inclusion, and I’ve worked in post-secondary institutions colleges, universities, and I also worked at VRS, Video Relay Service industry as well. Started out as an interpreter and then became a call center manager, then became director, VP of operations, and now I’m here at SignGlasses and just really just accessibility and inclusion has been rooted in my career for this long.

Awesome. Well, it sounds like they got kind of a perfect advocate and a perfect person on the team. Well, I guess onto SignGlasses, I guess let’s start with what are they?

Yeah. So SignGlasses, yes. So we’re focused on creating technology that connects people and our platform delivers real time interpreting and captioning services. We do this remotely. We deliver our services through our own platform, sort of like Zoom or any off the shelf conferencing platform. We have additional learning tools in our platform that help students, people in their workplaces or anyone using our technology, they can take notes in our platform while watching the interpreter or their captioning and it’s a pretty cool feature in there. And we also have our transcripts in there. A really great thing about us, and is our namesake, that we also provide our services through glasses. This is really great because the user can continue their line of sight. Wherever they are looking around in their environment, they have access to the communication. So we’re really excited about SignGlasses. And we’re all over the place. We’re in different universities, we’re in businesses, we have enterprise businesses, we’re in different theme parks, we do entertainment venues. So we’re just really excited about this technology today.

I can tell you really quickly that growing up as a CODA and growing up in the ’70s and ’80s where their ADA wasn’t so prevalent at the time, I remember just going to a theme park, a little girl, eight, nine years old, and getting on a ride in Disneyland and going through and experiencing the stories that are in the rides and then having my shoulder tapped, “What are they saying? What are they saying? What are they saying?” Throughout the ride, just interpreting as a little girl. Today, my parents, or my cousins, my family member, they can put these glasses on in the theme park and receive the communication access right there. And it’s just a beautiful experience. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. This is just one little story that I have, I have many of those types of stories.

Oh, my gosh. And I’m sitting here just trying to think of all the different places and all the different ways. I like sports, but I’m trying to think of sporting events, how would I know what the referee’s saying or what the call was and all these other things without asking, but being able to have that independence and have that, I mean, beyond just of course in the classroom or at work and all these other places where just having an interpreter kind of right there with you. And I have to ask, because I’m sitting here, I’m kind of picturing it of having the interpreter kind of there in my glasses. Does it allow for two-way conversation? Can I talk back to the, or can I sign back to the interpreter?

Oh, yes. Okay, so we’re talking about the glasses. Okay, yes. So when the user has the glasses on their face, there is a sign language interpreter on the lens that’s being streamed in. Now, you might think it’s close to your eye, but it’s really when you put these glasses on, it’s at an arm’s length that that’s how far the site is. So you will have to connect with a device. So we connect with a phone or tablet, iPad, and that’s where you can sign back to the interpreter and then you can get that… The interpreter can communicate that to the person who needs the access from the deaf person, and then that’s how it goes. I hope that was clear.

No, no, that’s perfectly clear because no, that’s just always been… I mean, there’s some little things you might be able to do out there, typing, writing, I think of those kind of things. But I mean, I know that, especially if someone uses ASL as their main communication method, I know that typed or written English is not the same thing. So it just doesn’t really give the same level of understanding. It isn’t quite the same kind of accommodation. It doesn’t give all the same information. So that is super cool. And just to jump around a little bit, and I’m sorry I’ll do that some, but where did the idea come from for SignGlasses as a company and as the glasses themselves?

Right. So our president, Korey Hocker, from Utah was at BYU University and at BYU, there was a planetarium there. So the kids are going into the planetarium to experience the program there and there is an interpreter. These children are deaf. So the interpreter’s there down at the bottom, they’re sitting in the auditorium there and watching the sign language interpreter, if you can imagine it’s pretty dark, and then looking up around to look in the planetarium. After the program’s done, they ask, “Hey, how was it?” And it wasn’t a great experience for them because breaking the line of sight, also it was really dark in there. And so that’s where SignGlasses technology was born because there was a grant at BYU and they said, “Hey, how can we make use of this? There’s these classes, here’s the grant.”

And our president at the time was in an entrepreneur class and he was able to gather resources and people together and get a great testing group and then came out with these glasses. They were older. So they were like the Epson Google Glass a long time ago, those two different solutions. If you can imagine they were really big and bulky. And then it just evolutionized until to the ones we use today, which is on our website. You can see what they look like. They’re pretty stylish and people love them. They get the sign language interpreting services through there, as well as the captioning, live captioning.

That is so cool. And then just kind of, I guess just because I’m curious, how much in advance do you need to schedule? Let’s say I was going to wear the glasses and it needed the ASL interpreting for some sort of event coming up, what’s the turnaround time if I needed to schedule that through the service?

Right. So I need to say that we don’t sell the glasses directly B2C to consumers. We believe that the service, interpreting services or captioning services should not be charged heavily to the deaf person. We believe that the companies, universities, workplaces, things like that, partner with us to provide the services and then they can disseminate the tech devices out to the users. Now, once we are in connection partnering with education institutions or workplaces, venues, things like that, then they have the ability to schedule the services directly through our platform and they can get a same day service. We love it when they give us advanced notice because that just means that we can cast a bigger opportunity to a wider network of interpreters. But if it’s same day, then that’s totally fine. We can do that. It just means, it decreases the pool of practitioners that we can get to schedule there.

But we’re really great, we have a 99% fill rate, which means when someone reaches out to us to fill their services that day or 24, 48 hours later, or even two weeks or reoccurring ongoing for a year or a semester long, we can really get services there. I hope that answered your question.

No, that completely answered my question. And I love that you kind of brought up that it’s always been, we’ve worked in job place accommodations and all those kind of things and it’s always, why is some of the cost burden being put to the individual? It should always be kind of the business or if you’re making your business accessible, like you said, you should make your business, your classroom, your place accessible, especially if you want folks to visit it and thrive and be able to enjoy it. So I like that everything kind of be offered to them and in that kind of way. And then I also like that you do have… I mean, of course, you always do want someone to hopefully have requested them and you have time, but I love that you can, if someone would walk in and need them, they can get that same day kind of service just for folks who either, let’s say it was a business, maybe weren’t able to plan ahead or didn’t even know that was really available until they got there, so that’s awesome.

That’s right. That’s right. We are also able to team with other businesses, but they have interpreters already. For an example, there’s a workplace where there’s a few staff interpreters, but you just made me think of this, but sometimes someone calls in sick or if they have an influx of meetings that day or something, they can, through our platform, just request services too, and then we can send our interpreter remotely to team with their interpreter. We also do that in education settings as well.

Very cool. Very cool. I love the team approach, just making sure folks are getting the accommodations they need. Well, I keep focusing on the glasses and it’s in the name, so of course that’s going to kind of happen, but you said that also your solutions are available beyond the glasses, on your own platform that allows for note-taking and everything. Where all can I access and use this platform?

Yes. So you can go to signglasses.com and that’s where you can see our all in one platform. We streamline everything there from the user’s end, from the coordinator admins end, and also from the practitioner. We call our interpreters and captioners, and writers, we call them practitioners. So our platform kind of answers to everyone that is going to be participating in the teaming of services.

Very cool. Monique, what are maybe some places where SignGlasses are implemented or available?

Yes. Well, we are in many universities, corporations and entertainment venues. One really great entertainment venue that I’m very proud to share, we are in Universal Studios in Hollywood and in Orlando. And we’re on various rides where they do these little story times during the ride when you get in there. A person deaf or harder fairing can go in there and ask for the glasses and they can give you the glasses as you get in and get on the ride.

Very cool. Monique, you probably have quite a few of these, but could you tell me a story or two about someone’s experience using SignGlasses, either the glasses themselves, the platform, or just how maybe it really helped them with accessibility?

Yes. My favorite story, I have a lot of them, but one of my favorite stories is a student in high school. Now we’re very careful about the types of students, youth who are on our platform because we want to make sure that it’s the best accommodation for them. But this one student in high school shared that using our services helped them with their learning experience. They were feeling isolated in their classroom, not really connected to the learning experience or even their peers, but once we were able to get in there and provide some communication access for the student, the learning experience was just much better for them. They were able to interact with their peers. They were able to contribute to their learning experience by contributing to class discussions and things like that. Grades were even better for the student. And that’s why we do what we do.

Just me looking back and seeing my own parents and aunts and uncles and cousins and things and them having multiple degrees, but still being passed over for career opportunities or my own mom being in class and a mainstream class growing up and not having access to communication and then later transferring into a deaf institution. But just, I think of her or I think of my cousins and aunts and uncles who didn’t have the opportunity to advance in education settings like the high schooler that I was just sharing. If we had technology like this back then, I just can’t help but think, how much would they be able to advance just being included?

And I can go on and on with these stories. There’s a story where interpreters themselves, they come on our platform and provide the services and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is amazing what you all are doing. This feels so deaf centric.” The tools that are using, the users able to bookmark and timestamp their own notes in their platform themselves and review the recorded lecture, things like that. Those are what energizes me to come and join this team every day and just continue providing this groundbreaking experiences for users.

Oh, yeah. Well, and kind of like you said, I mean, some of the things just being able to… I mean, using the planetarium kind of as the example, yeah, I can look up at the stars, but then I have to look down to the interpreter and what am I missing up here and how do I even kind of put those two things together as opposed to being able to maintain eye contact and conversation and really being able to pay attention to all the things going on while just having the interpreter right there in the field of you as part of the entire experience probably just makes it so much richer for a lot of individuals.

That’s right. Absolutely. One really great thing to remember for people is to know that we are not augmented reality or AI driven, not yet. We feel like it’s going to get there and we keep saying, “Five years, five more years.” I feel like it’s almost there. We could see it, but we’re just not there yet. There’s lots of different components to American sign language, sign language as a whole, and many different languages, but we have not found just yet AI or augmented reality with the glasses. We are totally live driven, if that makes sense?

Yeah, that makes total sense. Well, Monique, if our listeners want to find out more about SignGlasses, about all the great services, the technology and everything else, what’s a good way for them to do that?

Yes, please reach out to us, signglasses.com or you can follow us on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram. We’re always being really innovative with our technology, thinking about what can we do next, how can we answer any pain points out there in our communities. So keep looking out for us. We’re going to be doing something next, but if you want to reach out to me or any of us on our team, please reach out on signglasses.com.

Awesome, we’ll put all those links and everything down in the show notes so that folks can easily access it. Monique, thank you so much for coming on today for telling us about SignGlasses, your story, the thought behind them, and just how they can work as a great accessibility tool for individuals who need captions, need ASL, and just need that interpreting to be able to really just participate fully in some places where maybe that wasn’t really available before.

That’s right. That’s right. Thank you so much for having me and look out for SignGlasses upcoming.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or INTRAC. You can find out more about INTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, are supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.