Hearing Loss

The Next Generation Text (NGT) service helps people with hearing loss and/or a speech impairment to access the telephone system. A relay assistant acts as an intermediary to convert speech to text and vice versa for the two people in conversation.
The original Text Relay service required the person with hearing loss to have a textphone to be able to access the service. You can continue to access the service using a textphone, however NGT now enables access to the telephone system through a range of other ways including smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs with an internet connection.
 
Users can link a TextNumber, which looks like a standard phone number, to their home, work or mobile number so that when someone dials the TextNumber the call is automatically connected to the NGT service without the need for a caller to dial a special prefix.
 
People with some hearing, can still have a voice conversation, but with the added back-up of text in case they do not quite catch something. If the person cannot hear, but can use their voice, the phone allows them to speak directly to the other person while the app displays the other person’s speech translated to text by the relay assistant.
 
Please click here for more information
 
Please tell us if you think we can do anything to help when you are visiting the surgery, we have a loop system but would welcome your comments.