Ofcom under requirements better service for disabled customers

Communication providers must give text Relay services for phone users hearing and/or speech impairment photograph: Graham Turner for the guardian

People with disabilities rely on communication services to make phone calls is set to take advantage of the new measures proposed by the communications regulatory authority Ofcom under.

By law, communication service providers (ISPs) give text Relay services for phone users consulting and/or speech impairment. The service allows users to write messages in a text telephone which is provided by a relay-Assistant to the recipient. The Assistant then converts your reply back to the text for the user.

Ofcom under research has shown that users are current communication services slow, with conversations sometimes lack flow naturally. Under the current service, users have to say "go ahead" after each part of a conversation.

The new features of the text Relay service will include permits users to interject during a conversation, rather than to wait until the end of a message. They will also give the service access to mainstream consumer electronics devices such as PCs and netbooks, as well as existing Relay equipment, such as textphones.

By Ofcom concerning consumer group Director, Claudio Pollack, said: "people with disabilities may face barriers when you use the communication services. Although the wide availability and use of broadband and mobile text services have given greater opportunities for people with disabilities to communicate, still people with hearing and/or speech impairment meet barriers when using voice telephony.

"The proposed measures aim to reduce these barriers by allowing conversations to flow naturally in real time."

Ofcom under also proposes the introduction of the video relay on a limited basis for registered users, British sign language. Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom under the obligation to meet the needs of the disabled and the elderly.

In May introduced regulatory authorities an emergency SMS system for 14,500 users with hearing and speech barriers to text details about events to emergency services, instead of calling 999.

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