Deaf To See Announcements
I was particularly interested in the BBC’s recent article on LAMA (Location Aware Messaging for Accessibility). As someone whose hearing regularly goes from semi-reasonable to profoundly deaf, anything that allows me to see/hear public announcements in train stations would be a godsend. Any sound in an echoing environment is a problem and hearing aids, which tend to make sounds ‘tinny’ at the best of times, just make it worse. I have, literally, missed trains before now because the relevant PA announcement has been turned into a meaningless gabble by my hearing aid.
However, I can forsee a problem with the system. I’m lucky. I wasn’t born deaf and, although I suffered from hearing problems from the age of 18 months, I had enough periods of ‘good hearing’ to enable me to develop good spoken language skills - which, in turn, means I didn’t have any problem with reading or writing. Many people who are born with severe deafness aren’t so lucky. They don’t have the opportunity to develop the skills on their ‘native’ spoken language (sign language is more correctly termed their native language) and this can have serious impact on their ability to read.
So, just because PA announcements can now be relayed via a text message to their mobile phone doesn’t automatically mean they’ll be able to read or understand it.
It is possible that the number of deaf people with good, or adequate, reading skills is rising. I know deaf people who use mobile phones exclusively for sending text messages but SMS isn’t the same as written English. Does ‘SMS literacy’ automatically equate to an ability to read standard English? Either way, I think there’s a chance that some deaf people will not be able to make good use of this system.
I’m also a bit angry about the suggestion that end users might have to pay for the service using a subscription with their mobile provider. I had to pay a small fortune just to buy a mobile phone that was compatible with a T-loop and then fork out another substantial sum to buy the special loop. The idea that I will have to pay out more money to use a service that hearing people will, essentially, be able to access ‘for free’ via their ears, seems grossly unfair! Maybe they could start by ensuring that text versions of all PA announcements are displayed via a standard board first. Then those of us who are hearing impaired could decide whether we want to pay for a premium service. At least, give people some choice…