Using a phone in New Zealand just got easier for hearing impaired people.
A captioned telephone service is now available, thanks to a Government-funded initiative, in which people can use a specially-designed Captel phone and read captions of what the other person said verbatim. The delay is only about 2 seconds as the transmission is generated over the Internet.
“This new service means that for the first time, a hearing impaired person will be able to easily take part in a telephone conversation at almost the same speed as ordinary conversations,” says Amy Adams, the country’s Communications and Information Technology Minister.
According to The National Foundation of the Deaf, there are over 240,000 New Zealanders living with a significant hearing impairment. The country spends over $3.6 million each year on telecommunication services for the hearing impaired, this new service just being one piece of a larger, more comprehensive plan.