Miss-Delectable
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Midland MPs in battle to boost communication services for deaf people - Top Stories - News - Birmingham Mail
SIX Midland MPs have backed a campaign aimed at boosting telephone services for deaf people.
MPs Lorely Burt (Lib Dem, Solihull) and Labour MPs Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West); Richard Burden (Northfield); Roger Godsiff (Hall Green); Valerie Vaz, (Walsall South) and Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) have all signed an early day motion in the Houses of Parliament calling on the Government to introduce new technology to allow deaf people to communicate more effectively.
They have also written to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey urging him to ensure deaf people have access to a system called Video Relay Services (VRS), which allows them to place calls to hearing people using a sign language interpreter.
The system, which sees videophones being connected to a TV monitor or computers in the homes and work places of deaf people, is well established in the US but is not widely available in the UK.
Ms Burt, who travelled to Westminster last week with some of her deaf constituents as part of the VRS Today! Campaign to lobby the Government, said the technology would not only prove a boost to the lives of people with hearing problems but would also help to swell the economy.
“It’s estimated that over ten years VRS would create a net benefit to the UK economy of between £400 million and £550 million by enabling sign language users to find employment or to set up their own businesses,” she said.
“But it’s not just about the benefits to the economy, it’s about the rights of deaf people.
“If I want to speak to my friends, family or constituents at any time all I have to do is pick up the phone, but thousands of deaf people across the country are currently denied this opportunity.
“I want to see the deaf community having the same access to telecommunications that hearing people take for granted – that’s why I’m supporting the campaign,” Ms Burt added.
She said current telecommunications system in place for deaf people, most which involve a text system, are out-dated, slow and in need of modernisation.
SIX Midland MPs have backed a campaign aimed at boosting telephone services for deaf people.
MPs Lorely Burt (Lib Dem, Solihull) and Labour MPs Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West); Richard Burden (Northfield); Roger Godsiff (Hall Green); Valerie Vaz, (Walsall South) and Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) have all signed an early day motion in the Houses of Parliament calling on the Government to introduce new technology to allow deaf people to communicate more effectively.
They have also written to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey urging him to ensure deaf people have access to a system called Video Relay Services (VRS), which allows them to place calls to hearing people using a sign language interpreter.
The system, which sees videophones being connected to a TV monitor or computers in the homes and work places of deaf people, is well established in the US but is not widely available in the UK.
Ms Burt, who travelled to Westminster last week with some of her deaf constituents as part of the VRS Today! Campaign to lobby the Government, said the technology would not only prove a boost to the lives of people with hearing problems but would also help to swell the economy.
“It’s estimated that over ten years VRS would create a net benefit to the UK economy of between £400 million and £550 million by enabling sign language users to find employment or to set up their own businesses,” she said.
“But it’s not just about the benefits to the economy, it’s about the rights of deaf people.
“If I want to speak to my friends, family or constituents at any time all I have to do is pick up the phone, but thousands of deaf people across the country are currently denied this opportunity.
“I want to see the deaf community having the same access to telecommunications that hearing people take for granted – that’s why I’m supporting the campaign,” Ms Burt added.
She said current telecommunications system in place for deaf people, most which involve a text system, are out-dated, slow and in need of modernisation.