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Housing association launches new service for deaf residents | 24dash.com - Social Housing
With the support of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), ASRA Greater London Housing Association has launched a specialist telephone service for its deaf and speech impaired tenants.
ASRA’s staff now use Typetalk, a ‘dial direct’ national telephone relay service used by people with communication difficulties.
Tenants are already using the service for general housing and maintenance queries, as well as emergency repair call outs.
A textphone, available from BT, allows access to Typetalk which then relays tenant queries and requests direct to ASRA.
TextDirect allows tenants to use Typetalk by direct dial, and offers a single telecommunication service that supports the needs of people with communication difficulties.
It is available to users 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“With Typetalk, our deaf and speech-impaired tenants can now make telephone calls to us, rather than relying on friends and family,” said ASRA facilities manager, Alan Camp. “And we can respond quickly with the appropriate information.”
Responding to an enquiry, ASRA simply dials 18002, followed by the full telephone number of the person it wishes to call. Once the call is answered by the textphone user, a Typetalk operator will join the line to relay the call. The hearing person will speak their part of the conversation and the operator will type exactly what is being said. The textphone user will then reply by speaking directly to the hearing person, or typing their conversation for the operator to read back to ASRA.
Typetalk is managed by the RNID and funded by BT. Calls are charged at standard telephone rates.
There are an estimated nine million people in the UK who have hearing difficulties, and since Typetalk was introduced over 21 million calls have been made from textphone users to hearing people and vice versa.
With the support of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), ASRA Greater London Housing Association has launched a specialist telephone service for its deaf and speech impaired tenants.
ASRA’s staff now use Typetalk, a ‘dial direct’ national telephone relay service used by people with communication difficulties.
Tenants are already using the service for general housing and maintenance queries, as well as emergency repair call outs.
A textphone, available from BT, allows access to Typetalk which then relays tenant queries and requests direct to ASRA.
TextDirect allows tenants to use Typetalk by direct dial, and offers a single telecommunication service that supports the needs of people with communication difficulties.
It is available to users 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“With Typetalk, our deaf and speech-impaired tenants can now make telephone calls to us, rather than relying on friends and family,” said ASRA facilities manager, Alan Camp. “And we can respond quickly with the appropriate information.”
Responding to an enquiry, ASRA simply dials 18002, followed by the full telephone number of the person it wishes to call. Once the call is answered by the textphone user, a Typetalk operator will join the line to relay the call. The hearing person will speak their part of the conversation and the operator will type exactly what is being said. The textphone user will then reply by speaking directly to the hearing person, or typing their conversation for the operator to read back to ASRA.
Typetalk is managed by the RNID and funded by BT. Calls are charged at standard telephone rates.
There are an estimated nine million people in the UK who have hearing difficulties, and since Typetalk was introduced over 21 million calls have been made from textphone users to hearing people and vice versa.