May 7, 2003
SMS for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired
The correct answer to yesterday's question related to Uproar over "texting" Class, which was: " What segment of the population uses/needs SMS the most ?" was: The Deaf, and Hearing Impaired.
Imagine being deaf and having your car break down on the freeway and trying to make yourself understood over your cell phone. Or coming home from work, and simply having your spouse send you an SMS, asking you to bring home some bread. Simple every day events, once impossible to overcome, made possible thanks to pagers and text messaging, technilogical god sends for the Hearing Impaired.
Several countries offer text-messaging services for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired, such as emergency officer assistance (The UK's West Midlands Police) automobile assistance (Touring Secours in Belgium), or fire alerts (Fire Department of Amsterdam).
In an interview with Nathalie Palama, from the "Centre des Sourds et Malentendants (CRAL)" in Geneva, situated in a lovely old building looking over a beautiful garden where you walk in without knocking, she explained to me how text messaging has made their lives so much easier. Pagers are not widely used here, but e-mail, faxes and the "telescrit " (a two way terminal) also have been a tremendous help. Interestingly, insurance does not reimbourse all cell phone models, only the Nokia Communicator series (because of the integrated fax and faxes are covered) and the Swiss mobile operators do not grant special rates (though in France, mobile operator Orange has a special service called «motamo», allowing for a certain amount of free texting).
The most interesting thing I learned from this very exceptional woman (who is deaf since birth and has two hearing children), and spoke like you and I, was a special request she made, that cell phone manufacturers integrate "dactylology" or signwriting, the digital version of sign language which is widely available for computer keyboards. Because this is their language which they are proud of and would rather use than words.
The only US news I ever read relating to this subject was an article in Wired, announcing that "Verizon Wireless would be selling headsets that would reduce the interference and background noise that oftentimes prohibit the hearing-impaired from using a cellular phone". Now that SMS is picking up in the US, hopefully operators and social services will consider this means of communication for those who need it.
See textually's special category on this issue.
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