RACINE - The Sam's Club store here is one of three in the nation currently testing a new device that helps deaf or hearing-impaired people communicate.

Company officials said the experiment will determine whether Sam's Club places the face-to-face communication tools in additional stores across the country.

The device, called the UbiDuo, arrived recently for the use of both Sam's Club employees and members. Store Manager Mike Lindahl said this Sam's Club has about 12 employees who are hearing-impaired.

Brenda Taylor, a spokeswoman for S. Comm, the machine's manufacturer, said these three Sam's Club stores are the nation's first retailers to use the technology.

Taylor said Wal-Mart, Sam's Club's parent company, has also used it to interview deaf job applicants.

The UbiDuo, which reached the marketplace less than two years ago, consists of two flat, matching keyboards with tilting screens. What one person types shows on the other person's screen and vice-versa.

The mated pair of keyboards have a range of 1,000 feet, said Beckie Ramirez, marketing team leader at the local Sam's Club. So a hearing-impaired shopper can check out a keyboard, take it around the store and send questions back to the service desk. Or the shopper can take the pair and "talk" to employees throughout the store.

Ramirez credited Sharon Orlopp, Sam's People Group senior vice president, for initiating the effort to include hearing-impaired people in the company. "She met with members of the deaf community and wanted to make a difference," Ramirez said.

That led to the UbiDuo purchases.

This store's members include one deaf family, Ramirez said. When they have questions for store employees, "They'll be looking for paper and a pen."

Anthony Altenbach, 19, a part-time Sam's Club employee who has been deaf in one ear since birth, tried the UbiDuo with a visitor Tuesday. What follows is part of that conversation.

"Have you tried this out before now?"

"No, this is the first time."

"How would it help?

"I think this makes things much smoother. Not so much confusion. … Well, I enjoy this, but I think it requires you to know how to type."

Tonya Villwock, Racine County independent-living coordinator for Society's Assets, said this area does have a high percentage of hearing-impaired residents. She said the UbiDuo could be useful in a store such as Sam's Club.

"I do think it would facilitate their freedom," she said.

Villwock said the UbiDuo could be even more useful in a doctor's office, preserving privacy by eliminating the need for an interpreter in that situation.

Ramirez, a former interpreter for Wal-Mart, said the UbiDuo could also help with other kinds of nonverbal customers, such as a stutterer or someone with a throat problem.

For more information, call Sam's Club at (262) 554-2052.

Villwock said the state has a grant program that might cover part of the price of buying a UbiDuo. Society's Assets, which helps people live independently in their homes, also has a loan program.

For more information on either, call Tonya Villwock at (262) 637-9128 or e-mail her at tvillwock@societyassets.org.