My name is Bob Prottas.
I'm from Trumbull, Connecticut, in the United States.
I'm here at the TEDActive Conference 2015.
I used to be a chemist with DuPont for 27 years,
and four years ago I retired.
My oldest son is deaf and he was adopted from Korea,
and I remember watching TV shows with him with the subtitles,
and I thought, "You know, it's nice having subtitles."
I saw it as my mission to subtitle these TED talks,
so the deaf and hard of hearing could see them,
and then I learned about the whole translation project,
where they translate the subtitles into other languages.
I take an English talk and add subtitles in English.
Well, then they can take those subtitles
and turn them into different languages,
so people all over the world can view these,
and read them in their own language,
which I think is pretty impressive.
There are so many talks to choose from,
that you've got to wonder where to start.
And the beauty of it is,
there's the TED organization, which really promotes a lot.
But then there are a lot of TEDx talks,
and they're like pearls -- like diamonds in the rough.
It's really pretty exciting;
you've got this much broader audience.
A little effort on my part goes a long way
to make this a worldwide phenomenon.
I like that.