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21st century technology helps deaf people make telephone calls
TalkByText Home Edition - software developed by charity RNID - is set to revolutionise the way deaf and hard of hearing people communicate with friends and loved ones by facilitating real-time text conversation. The software, developed by the UK's largest deafness charity, overcomes problems previously encountered with communication solutions for deaf and hard of hearing people - analogue textphones, an alternative to voice-phones have evolved little since, are bulky, and often difficult to use. Instant Messaging services, also used by millions of hearing people worldwide, can't be used to make text-to- voice calls. RNID's new TalkByText Home Edition software offers users character-by-character text. Real-time text is essential for proper conversation and for making calls via a text relay service to hearing people's voice phones. TalkByText is a software-only solution that can be installed on home PCs, allowing deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate effectively with other PC or textphone users, or hearing people on voice phones without the need for any additional, costly equipment. When making a call from TalkByText to a voice phone, RNID Typetalk - the UK's 24/7 text relay service funded by BT - will convert the text typed by the deaf person into voice to the hearing caller and vice versa. As text flows in real- time, it is possible to have a natural dialogue with any voice phone user as well as other textphone or TalkByText users. Guido Gybels, Director of Technology at RNID said: "Few things are more important to us than the ability to communicate. Deaf and hard of hearing people have always faced significant barriers in their social life as well as in employment because of the challenges they face in using the telephone. "While the rest of society uses modern telephone technology, deaf people were stuck in the past, until recently. TalkByText Home Edition is a massive leap forwards and gives deaf people a simple to use, modern solution that allows them to communicate with anyone else over the telephone. "Mainstream markets have failed to modernise textphone technology for use by the nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK - a number that is set to increase as the population ages. By developing TalkByText, RNID has brought deaf people to the forefront of technology - exploiting state of the art Internet technology to make a real difference to real people's ability to communicate effectively any time, any place and with anyone over the telephone network. Something that is essential for full participation of citizens in the modern world and to their social life and wellbeing. TalkByText Home Edition can be bought and downloaded online at www.ictrnid.org.uk/tbthe.html
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