Introducing the Ubi Duo

The Learning, Diversity, and Development team is excited to announce the incorporation of the Ubi Duo into the USPS work environment, and on January 28, Matilda Johnson will demonstrate its use from 11-12:30 and again from 3:00 to 4:00pm in the Birmingham Plant’s upstairs break room. (See the flyer at the end of this post.)

What IS an Ubi Duo? It’s a pair of devices that facilitate improved communication between deaf or hearing-impaired people and hearing people. Each person using the device has a keyboard and attached screen, and the conversation appears in front of both of them in real time.

Ubi Duos are portable, lightweight (they weigh only 6 pounds), wireless, and run on rechargeable batteries that last up to 10 hours. They were invented by a father and son team who were frustrated by the less-than-ideal communication between them (the son is deaf, while the father is not).

Yes, the name is odd, but this excerpt from the sComm website explains it:

The name stems from the words "ubiquitous" and "duo" - ubiquitous because our desire is to see the device become available everywhere so that every deaf and hard of hearing person can have the opportunity to experience its benefits, and duo because one unit is comprised of two halves which enables two people to have a face-to-face conversation.

Hopefully, the Ubi Duo will give employees new opportunities to communicate and to get to know each other much better while also opening doors for deaf and hearing-impaired colleagues.