Assistive Devices

Text phones are useful for those with a hearing impairment and come in all shapes and sizes.
Mobile textphones allow the user to communicate on the move although the technology is still in its infancy.

Desktop textphones have been around for longer than the mobile ones and are versatile and reliable.
 
 
Many users will employ a relay service known as Typetalk which facilitates communication with a hearing user. A deaf subscriber precedes a telephone number with the Typetalk code 18001. This routes the call through a Typetalk operator who then types whatever the hearing user says. The deaf user then reads the text on the textphone screen. The deaf user then has the option to speak a reply (Voice carry over or VCO) or type the reply which will then be conveyed by the Typetalk operator to the hearing user. It is also possible for hearing users to initiate a call to a textphone user via the Typetalk service.
 
Hearing Aids come in all shapes and sizes to suit a particular type of hearing loss. Modern technology has shrunk the modern aid until it is hardly visible. Some fit behind the ear and others in the ear itself.
As is the case with televisions there are 2 basic types - Digital or Analogue using different technologies to process the sound.. Both types are available on the NHS or may be purchased privately.

The Social Model of Disability...
...as defined by Wikipedia,  proposes that barriers and prejudice and exclusion by society (purposely or inadvertently) are the ultimate factors defining who is disabled and who is not in a particular society.

It recognizes that while some people have physical, intellectual, or psychological differences from a statistical mean, which may sometimes be impairments, these do not have to lead to disability unless society fails to accommodate and include them in the way it would those who are 'normal.

The phrase 'differently abled' is sometimes used to convey an aspect of the social model of disability, although the model is not generally taken as denying that some attributes (or loss of) can be seen (when unaided) as impairments.

The origins of the approach can be traced to the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement/human rights movements; the specific term itself emerged from the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

My name is Chris Wigg andI have suffered from deafness since I was a child of 11 possibly as a result of contracting measles. My brother, Mark also caught the disease and also became deaf. Although the disability was only mild to start with, it was enough of a handicap to affect my schooling.



When I was at school in the 1960's there was little deaf awareness and support was non existent. I gave up studying French at A level because I found the aural part too difficult. A hearing aid was fitted with little success as the frequencies I was losing were in the high ranges.



Over time I developed coping strategies. However over the years my hearing gradually deteriorated to the point where I was able to hear very little. It was at this point in 1997 that I decided to have a cochlear implant on the NHS and the operation was performed by Mr Fitzgerald O'Connor at St Thomas's hospital in London.

The operation was difficult due to the ossification of my cochlear and only four of ten electrodes were successfully implanted. However the results were encouraging and after several months getting used to the new sounds it was proving very useful. Although the quality of sound was not good enough to appreciate music which I regretted as I was a guitarist and singer.

This blog will aim to help other deaf people and offer advise on cochlear implants and deafness in general.