Screenphone breakthrough for hard of hearing
23/10/2006
For the estimated 450,000 adults in the UK with hearing difficulties, the inability to use a voice telephone often leaves them feeling isolated and cut off from family and friends.
But now an innovative new device, called a "Screenphone", looks set to transform that. Available from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), Screenphone allows users to talk directly to the other party, while receiving the response in text provided by a Typetalk operator.
RNID has found that people who lose their hearing during adult life usually prefer to use their voice when making a call, rather than using a traditional textphone where the message is typed on a keyboard.
Existing textphones are not designed with older people in mind who often struggle adapting to them. RNID, has been working in partnership with leading telecommunications manufacturer, Geemarc, to develop an affordable product for use at home. The ScreenPhone works like a traditional telephone with the addition of a large screen, which displays incoming speech as text.
Dr Mark Downs, RNID’s Executive Director of Technology and Enterprise, says: “This is a very exciting breakthrough for people who are losing their hearing and can no longer use the telephone.
“It is not simply sufficient to amplify sound for people who are losing their hearing because - as deafness increases - the ear’s ability to distinguish sounds decreases and gradually reaches a point at which people can’t distinguish between different parts of speech making using the telephone extremely frustrating.”
One reviewer was Ginny Kanka from Peckham, London, who has a profound hearing loss. She teaches lip reading to people who are losing their hearing. Ginny says: “Before ScreenPhone came to my home, I always had to have a hearing member of my family next to me on stand-by to help me with voiced telephone conversation.
“ScreenPhone is brilliant and very easy to use. Both the font size on the screen and the volume control can be adjusted to suit user's needs and the keyboard has gone so there is no need to type. The ScreenPhone costs £199.00 (excluding VAT).
To find out more or to order ScreenPhone, visit the RNID Online shop weblink below or call 0870 789 8855. Alternatively, textphone 01733 238020.
To find out more about the work of the RNID, visit the link below.