Hearing Impaired benefit from AOL IM

AOL has just unveiled a beta version 6.8 of its AIM instant messaging program that comes with a Real-Time IM feature which enables users to view each letter IM users enter in real time instead of waiting for an “Enter” keypress. What’s the good of this, you ask? For starters, it works pretty much the same way for users of TTY devices that are normally used by deaf and hearing-impaired folks instead of a telephone. Those who want to access this new feature can “Real-Time IM” inside an instant messaging window (or select a buddy from the Buddy List and press Control-R, whatever floats your boat). Needless to say, users on both ends need to have a version of AIM which supports Real-Time IM before taking advantage of this feature. I think that the Viable System is much better at getting the message across though.