Like many businesspeople, Giovannetti's personal digital assistant -- a T-Mobile Sidekick -- has become part of her business day, making for an easy form of communication with co-workers, friends and family.

Yet what separates Giovannetti from other everyday PDA users is that she is deaf, relying on the wireless device to keep up with business and lifestyle demands of the 21st century.

"It's great," Giovannetti signs through her interpreter, Bernadette Mayhall. "It's so important for me, as a mother and wife, to be in touch with my husband and children."

As technology improves, wireless devices are becoming increasingly popular among the deaf and hard of hearing.

"It's leveling the playing field, so to speak," said Darrick Nicholas, spokesman for Gallaudet University, the liberal-arts college for the deaf and hard of hearing in Washington. "As hearing people, we have access to all the great technology, and so do the deaf people, as well."

Though there may be no hard numbers, Nicholas estimates that most deaf and hard of hearing people -- at least in the metropolitan areas -- have purchased some form of wireless text-messaging device.

"It's how they communicate," he said. "The barriers are basically breaking between the deaf and hard of hearing" and people who can hear.

Ronald L. Lanier agrees, saying the devices have been a blessing for the disabled.

"It makes a big difference as far as being able to keep in touch," said Lanier, the director of the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Hit by a car when he was 7, Lanier has had hearing aids in both ears ever since. Hard of hearing, Lanier uses a handheld PDA for work and to talk with his deaf colleagues, including Giovannetti.

"It's been like a year ago that I've noticed more and more deaf people are using text-messaging and pagers," signed Giovannetti, 40, who coordinates the assignments of interpreters to state agencies, such as courts, that may need them.

"The use has totally increased."

She has been using the palm-sized Sidekick since shortly after it was introduced in late 2002.

The device is about twice the size of a common cell phone and has a screen that flips back, revealing a miniature computer keypad. Users can type up to 160 characters with their thumbs, and the notes can be sent to any text-capable phone or to a computer.

"When we were first developing the Sidekick, we knew that the new and innovative ways to communicate on the device would resonate well with groups whose daily communication was text rather than speech," said Jeff Folino, senior manager of the Sidekick for the Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA Inc.

There are more than 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United States, according to the National Association of the Deaf. Popular ways of communication include traditional sign language, phone-relay services, text telephones, online instant-messaging and wireless text devices.

While technology has greatly aided the deaf and hard of hearing, there are some hindrances with its use.

For instance, T-Mobile's service is scattered throughout the country and is unavailable in rural parts of Virginia.

Rural areas that don't have cell coverage are a barrier to universal use among the deaf and hard of hearing. "If everybody could, they would have them," Lanier said.

Wireless companies such as Verizon, Sprint and Cingular offer larger coverage networks, with BlackBerry and palmOne Inc.'s Treo PDA models. Also offering the BlackBerry is Alltel Corp. and T-Mobile, as well as Reston-based Nextel Communications Inc., which has a small network but is in the process of merging with Sprint.

Most regular cell phones also have text-messaging capabilities.

The wireless companies offer data-only plans, which give the deaf -- and others who don't have a need for voice services -- access to e-mail, Web browsing and text-messaging, passing along the additional costs to the customer.

At T-Mobile, data-only service plans, which do not include voice, cost $29.99 a month, giving subscribers unlimited access to text-messaging and e-mail. Verizon's unlimited data-only plan costs $49.99 a month.

In addition, there are companies that offer rebates to the deaf and hard of hearing, including Fuse Communications, Agotel Corp. and GoAmerica Communications Corp.

All of the new technologies are a major asset to the deaf community, said Jenny Buechner, outreach specialist and video-relay services coordinator with Hamilton Internet Relay in Washington.

Relay services work by a deaf person calling an operator who speaks to the caller on the other end. Last week, for instance, Buechner, who is deaf, signed over a video to an operator at a Hamilton call center, who relayed the words to The Times-Dispatch.

With Buechner's wireless BlackBerry, she has nearly the same communications access as if she could hear, she said. The device has changed her life "considerably," she signs to her relay operator.

"It has helped . . . with the quick pace of life these days," she said.

Different personal digital assistants also have the ability to download relay services, which allow the deaf to place calls to those who don't have text-capable phones. The relay applications are offered by companies such as Sprint, MCI or Hamilton Internet Relay.

With the Sidekick, Giovannetti has unlimited access to instant messaging, text functions and e-mail. The device also vibrates, taking place of the ringtone, so she can feel when a new message comes through.

Vibration on the Sidekick was originally meant to be complimentary to the ringtones, T-Mobile's Folino said. But feedback from the deaf community led to a stronger vibration in the Sidekick II, which was released in the U.S. in September.

Upcoming versions of the Sidekick will have additional features for the deaf, he said.

Text-messaging is much quicker than the other methods of communication for the deaf, Giovannetti signed, such as the text telephone, or TTY, which transmits and receives messages coded in the electric signals that pass over telephone wires.

While text-messaging has been around on computers for some time, it has been only in the past five years, Gallaudet's Nicholas said, that the wireless devices have been embraced in the deaf community.

The lag time between conversation responses, he said, has dropped considerably with wireless handhelds.

"You can have a real-time conversation with someone no matter if you're on the subway, in the office if you're at home taking care of the kids," he said. "The communication is there."

By Jeffrey Kelley, Times Dispatch