asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he has any plans to make special telephone machines for the deaf available for public use.
Written Answers. - Telephone Machines for Deaf.
27.
The standard facilities available to assist people with impaired hearing in making telephone calls are not suitable for satisfactory use with coin box telephones. The Department is conducting experiments to ascertain if it is practicable to develop standard facilities suitable for such telephones.
A specially designed experimental public telephone on which the sound can be magnified by means of a press button arrangement on the handset has been installed on an experimental basis in a booth in the GPO for use by people who have impaired hearing. Similar type equipment has likewise been installed in response to requests in St. Joseph's School for the Deaf in Cabra and for a private subscriber in Clontarf. If it were found that these experiments were successful and that the equipment could be supplied by a manufacturer on a standard basis at a reasonable cost, the intention would be to extend their use to other centres in Dublin and the larger provincial towns where a number of telephone booths are available in close proximity to each other.