Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
The Deaf Community Call For Improved Telephone Access
With all the advancement in technology, one wonders how much technology is advancing for the deaf community. The deaf community has taken a new call of action to the government for an improvement on telephone access. Since the world is seeing so many technological advancements, it only makes sense to see an improvement in access to telephone devices for deaf people.
The telephones for deaf people work on a system by converting sign language and text into speech, making it easier for two-way telephone conversations. The community are now voicing their need for improving technological devices, to help make access to the telephone for deaf people easier to use with improved communication and improved signal.
Furthermore the TAG consortium, who are the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, British Deaf Association, Hearing Concern, Sense, and other establishments, are also calling for the telephone access to be more affordable and for the government to provide funding for the deaf community so more people can have access to the new improved telephone access. However, some deaf people still struggle to put their telephones into good use.
Chair of the TAG Consortium Ruth Myers, “They are bereft of key telephone services that could help them gain equality with the rest of society, educationally and professionally.”The government can help try and push the improvement to the telephone service, which will benefit the deaf community. The improvements include captioned telephony, video relay and text relay.
Captioned telephony is system which converts a relay operators speech into text that can be read by the deaf person. Video relay can be used between deaf people, so they can communicate over the phone through sign language, by installing webcams into the system. Text relay allows the deaf person to type their message, for an operator to read out for them.
At present the current telephone service provider, Ofcom, is allowing text relay in certain parts of the country. Much of the US and Australia have been using this device, with the UK using the SignVideo device. TAG have formed a campaign to take place on 3rd April, with an aim to have the government to think about improvements to the telephone service for the deaf community and to make a concerted effort in to allowing more deaf people to gain access to the improved telephone service.
With all the advancement in technology, one wonders how much technology is advancing for the deaf community. The deaf community has taken a new call of action to the government for an improvement on telephone access. Since the world is seeing so many technological advancements, it only makes sense to see an improvement in access to telephone devices for deaf people.
The telephones for deaf people work on a system by converting sign language and text into speech, making it easier for two-way telephone conversations. The community are now voicing their need for improving technological devices, to help make access to the telephone for deaf people easier to use with improved communication and improved signal.
Furthermore the TAG consortium, who are the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, British Deaf Association, Hearing Concern, Sense, and other establishments, are also calling for the telephone access to be more affordable and for the government to provide funding for the deaf community so more people can have access to the new improved telephone access. However, some deaf people still struggle to put their telephones into good use.
Chair of the TAG Consortium Ruth Myers, “They are bereft of key telephone services that could help them gain equality with the rest of society, educationally and professionally.”The government can help try and push the improvement to the telephone service, which will benefit the deaf community. The improvements include captioned telephony, video relay and text relay.
Captioned telephony is system which converts a relay operators speech into text that can be read by the deaf person. Video relay can be used between deaf people, so they can communicate over the phone through sign language, by installing webcams into the system. Text relay allows the deaf person to type their message, for an operator to read out for them.
At present the current telephone service provider, Ofcom, is allowing text relay in certain parts of the country. Much of the US and Australia have been using this device, with the UK using the SignVideo device. TAG have formed a campaign to take place on 3rd April, with an aim to have the government to think about improvements to the telephone service for the deaf community and to make a concerted effort in to allowing more deaf people to gain access to the improved telephone service.