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.