TECHNOLOGY which will allow deafblind people to make telephone calls is being trialled in Australia.
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A CapTel (telephone with a screen which displays captions of a phone conversation) has been teamed with a braille display allowing people who are deaf and have low/no vision to speak on the phone and read the response.
Victorian woman Michelle Steven became the first deafblind Australian to make a telephone call with the new equipment, phoning her sister Carol for a chat.
Ms Stevens, whose vision was damaged when she was born prematurely and her hearing lost due to chronic ear infections, said the technology was very exciting.
"Having phone calls with friends and calling my university - using my voice - will be fantastic," Ms Stevens said.
"The deafblind community will find it really valuable, especially the many older blind people who are losing their hearing. I think it will make a huge difference to their lives and save a lot of time."
The six-month trial of Braille CapTel is taking place in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland with five deafblind people provided with a CapTel handset and braille display costing approximately $3390 as well as training and ongoing outreach support by Conexu, a community organisation which promotes advances in communication technology to improve the connectedness of deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired Australians.
The Australian trial is being mirrored in the United States of America by CapTel developer Ultratec. www.captel.com
