Service for the deaf

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 4

Service for the deaf

Gold Band Taxis have installed an emergency telephone system for deaf people. The communication device enables the deaf to communicate by telephone with Gold Band Taxis control room which can then summon the emergency service required. A “deaf phone,” which has a typewriter and visual display unit, allows the deaf to correspond with others who have deaf phones. Mrs Kathy Grieve of Gold Band Taxis said no emergency service in Christchurch had so far installed the device. “When a deaf person makes a call to us our receiver makes a special noise so we know that it’s a deaf caller and we then communicate by messages on the screens,” she said. Gold Band Taxis installed the system to enable the deaf to order a taxi-cab but are offering the service for emergency calls because the control room works twenty-four hours a day. “We are surprised that there is no official deaf phone emergency system but we know the police are considering it,” Mrs Grieve said. “We felt there have been too many delays so we’ve put the system in place and hope there won’t be any emergency requirements — only taxicab requests.”