Tags:
Captions
,
Hearing Loss
,
telephone
Liz Evans with her CapTel
Posted by
pata from Buddina
on 05/07/2010 at 11:28 AM
in Sunshine Coast Seniors - Community
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Several of the hearing impaired members of the Better Hearing Australia, Sunshine Coast group were delighted to have the recent opportunity to be introduced to the innovative 'CapTel' - captioned telephone. We had a 'sneak preview' at one of our meetings but it was also displayed, and able to be trialled, during a demonstration at Telstra Countrywide by the Australian Communication Exchange (ACE) who have been instrumental in bringing about 40 of the instruments into Australia (from the USA where they have been in use for nearly eight years).
The Federal Government has agreed to fund a further 500 of the phones for general distribution among the hearing impaired. Making telephone calls will be very much easier and smoother for the lucky people who will have a CapTel. This is thanks to voice recognition technology and the intermediary who speaks the message from the caller and whose voice is translated to text on the screen. The accuracy rate is at 96 - 97%. Liz Evans, seen showing the BHA group her trial phone, said, "it is so easy to use and is the best thing since sliced bread!" Liz, hearing impaired since childhood, has been unable to use a phone previously.
