Poor access to emergency services for the deaf could result in a death unless some action is taken soon, say advocates for the deaf.
Freda Pearce of the Deaf Education and Advocacy Forum cites a case in which a baby nearly drowned in his bath and his mother was frantic in her efforts to try and get help.
Unable to speak, she tried to get help via her fax machine without success. The first neighbour she tried was out but she eventually got help from another neighbour and the baby survived.
Pearce says this is one of several life-threatening situations she knows of in which deaf people have had problems getting emergency help.
A petition has just been launched to ask Telecom to provide a relay service so that deaf people can call for help.
Many deaf people have textphones (also called TTY or TDD machines) enabling them to type messages through a telephone link, but the system requires the receiver to also have a textphone machine.
The police have had one for only about 15 months. The Wellington Free Ambulance, the Automobile Association and hospitals still don’t.
So the Deaf Education and Advocacy Forum and the Deaf Association want Telecom to establish a relay service which could receive messages via a textphone and relay them by voice to any number requested. Return messages could be typed back and conversations held.
“This opens up the entire community to deaf people – they could phone a doctor, a pizza, their work, put an ad in the paper…” says Pearce. “It would give them the same access as hearing people.”
As well as getting easy access to emergency services, deaf people are keen to gain the extra independence a relay service would allow.
“I don’t like to ask people for help. I’d like to do it myself,” says Royce Flynn of Grenada. Deaf people often have to drive some distance to find a friend who can telephone someone for them, and helpers often become overburdened by having to relay messages for their friends.
Flynn and others believe deaf people have a right to equal access to telephone services in the same way that ramps give equal access to buildings for the disabled.
Pearce says a relay service is already available through most of the US and in parts of England. The cost of the service is carried by all telephone users.
Telecom communications manager Catherine Sands says Telecom is considering establishing a relay service for emergency services.
Telecom sponsors the National Foundation for the Deaf and has sponsored a sign language dictionary project and speech language therapy schools. But Sands says providing a full relay service for deaf people could cost $13 million a year and is not necessarily appropriate for a private company.
- Deaf Education and Advocacy Forum, ph 384 7984; Deaf Assn, ph 499 3963.
Cabs for the chordless
A Taxi-Cab service allowing people to call a taxi without speaking has been welcomed by the Deaf Association. Wellington Combined Taxis last year established a free Easy-Cab service, allowing people to order a taxi to their address immediately by merely dialling in their client code. There are now about 400 regular users of the service – mainly businesses which like to save time. Deaf Association liaison officer Marian Kurney says the service is a bonus for the deaf, most of whom have difficulty speaking.
