People with Disabilities

Accessibility to telecommunications services, in particular, those covered by universal service obligations, and to the information society as a whole has the potential to greatly enhance the quality of life for people with a disability. The universal service legislation is designed to ensure that all members of society can enjoy the benefits available from modern telecommunications in Ireland. Eircom, the current universal service provider, provides the following facilities for people with disabilities:

For users that are hearing impaired

Inductive couplers which allow users with a hearing aid set to connect it to their telephone in order to allow them to hear incoming speech clearly;
Amplifier phones which allow the user to increase the volume of incoming speech; and
Teleflash Visual Alert which shows a flashing light, or makes a loud noise when the phone rings.

For users that are hearing and/or speech impaired

A Text Relay Service provides facilities for the receipt and translation of voice messages into text and the conveyance of that text to the textphone of customers of any operator, and vice versa; and
The time taken to make a text telephone call is longer than that needed to make an ordinary call. In order to ensure equality of payment for deaf text telephone users, Eircom fund the STEP (Scheme for Text Telephone Equality of Payment) rebate scheme. This provides text telephone users with a rebate of up to 70% on text phone call charges per bill.

For users with limited dexterity or mobility

Push button telephones with speed and automatic redial buttons allow pre-programmed numbers (typically the most called) or last called numbers to be dialled without having to re-enter the number; and
Hands free/loudspeaker phones mean that the handset does not need to be used at all.

For users with restricted vision

Restricted vision telephones are push button telephones with a raised dot on the central number (5) which can help users with restricted vision to find other numbers more easily
Braille billing is the facility to allow users to receive their bills in Braille for free.
Special directory enquiries which allows those unable to use the phone book because of a disability to use a directory enquiry service free of charge.

For more details on the services listed above contact Eircom on 1901. Other operators may offer services for people with disabilities.