[RowanTheFox]

For the average person in SR that cyber replacement was not a option, would have several tools at their disposal.

For the most part, I think a standard commlink with some translation software would be all that is needed for most personal interactions. The deaf person aims the Mic of the commlink  at the persons they want to 'hear', the commlink captures their words, and displays them in AR for the deaf individual to read. Done.

Hearing sounds from the environment is an other issue altogether, and the deaf person probably wouldn't be able to pick up on environmental audio clues at all... As the ambient noises would either overload the mic, or even just confuse it with what it is supposed to translate.... After all, <Crashing sound. Breaking glass. Screeching noise.> doesn't really help the deaf person much... Are they approaching an accident? A construction site? A robbery in progress?

And honestly, if the person was born deaf, they would proabably find such info distracting, often relying on their other senses to clue them into the happenings of their environment.

As someone with partial hearing loss and significant vision loss, I can say in complete honesty that a character WILL find a way to overcome their deafness. My sense of smell is by far my strongest sense, and the smells of a gunfight (gunpowder and cordite) are drastically different than the smells of construction (concrete dust, diesel fuel/exhaust, and sweat). A character who was born deaf, or has been deaf for any significant amount of time will learn to adapt.

I got a buddy with advanced Retinitis Pigmentosa that begs me to take him with me when I go target shooting. He can't hit anything with out me lining him up, but just loves the feel of the guns and the smell of spent powder. (As long as he pays for his ammo, I could care less!)

I grew up around guns, and with years of practice I've learned to not only differentiate gunpowder from other smells, but actually be able to tell what kind of round was used. Winchester Ammunition 22 long rifle 36 grain plated lead hollow point rounds leave a slightly different smell than, say Remington UMC .44 180 grain jacketed soft point rounds.

That said, I grew up around a LOT of guns. Because 'merica.

[Senko]

For the average person in SR that cyber replacement was not a option, would have several tools at their disposal.

For the most part, I think a standard commlink with some translation software would be all that is needed for most personal interactions. The deaf person aims the Mic of the commlink  at the persons they want to 'hear', the commlink captures their words, and displays them in AR for the deaf individual to read. Done.

Hearing sounds from the environment is an other issue altogether, and the deaf person probably wouldn't be able to pick up on environmental audio clues at all... As the ambient noises would either overload the mic, or even just confuse it with what it is supposed to translate.... After all, <Crashing sound. Breaking glass. Screeching noise.> doesn't really help the deaf person much... Are they approaching an accident? A construction site? A robbery in progress?

And honestly, if the person was born deaf, they would proabably find such info distracting, often relying on their other senses to clue them into the happenings of their environment.

Honestly I'm not sure I agree. Bear in mind you can for not much more get mics (in shadowrun) with select sound filters and the like so it'd be quite easy to have it set to ambient noise normally and then tune in only on the guy showing you around his house. As someone who likes subtitles on movies (most modern one have a really annoying habit of loud thematic music that drowns out what the characters are actually saying) I don't think having those playing need be that distracting. Think of a small white text box scrolling away "background noise, bird chirping, store music, guy sniffing." then in BIG BOLD RED LETTERS "CRASHING SOUND, BREAKING GLASS, SCREECHING NOISE." May not help them much but it'd tell them something odd was going on and alert them they should at least take a quick look round to determine if its a construction site or a truck sliding towards them.

Not to mention with the AI somethings have it could well be possible to program an agent like the Nixdorf Secretar except aimed at determining normal sounds vs danger sounds and alerting the subject to them. For that matter it could be useful for anyone your strolling along the street, asleep, suddenly your morning music cuts out and you hear the sounds of screams and gunshots as it draws your attention to an incident happening nearby so you can run away.