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Vodafone UK has started offering a mobile phone that allows deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired people to hold real-time, interactive conversations. The mobile textphone, an enhanced Nokia 9210i Communicator smartphone, leverages software developed by RNID, a charity representing the nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United Kingdom.

As Nokia Communicator, the textphone has a keyboard and display screen, but instead of speaking into a mouthpiece the user can type what they want to say and read the reply from the screen. It aims to improve deaf people’s ability to make any call, from something as crucial as contacting the emergency services to making a simple inquiry about goods or services. It also allows interactive text conversation similar to speaking on the telephone, where users can interrupt and enjoy the immediacy of a dialogue.

A deaf person can communicate with a hearing person using any ordinary landline or mobile phone with the help of RNID Typetalk. Any Vodafone UK customer can now call textphones on any UK network using the BT TextDirect pre-fix 18002. Realtime interpretation between text and voice is provided by the national Relay service RNID Typetalk.

According to Dr. John Low, RNID’s Chief Executive, the mobile textphone brings the mobile phone to the reason for the invention of the telephone in the first place. He said, “it is a triumph to see phones once again being used as they were intended – to empower deaf people. Alexander Graham Bell began by developing a microphone to help his deaf mother hear. Had he not been so keen to bring down barriers for deaf people, phones as we know them might not exist.”