National charity eases communication with the deaf and hard of hearing with 'Text-Connect'™ computer based text messaging.

Hearing Concern has adopted Text-Connect™ to aid communication between its Help desk and deaf and hard of hearing clients.

Hearing Concern are a national charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for people who are deaf or hard of hearing by providing advice, information and support, promoting communication access and raising public and professional awareness of the issues associated with hearing loss.

Many deaf and hard of hearing people find that Text messaging is a very convenient way to communicate. To facilitate this Text-Connect™ has provided the charity with its own 'Text-Number' and texting software that will link directly to the Hearing Concern national Helpdesk.

Text-Connect's '2 way' send and receive operation means the Helpdesk can reply to enquiries by text. Almost instant message delivery means that there is minimal time lag between sending and delivery, making SMS text 'conversations' a reality.

Lisa, Helpdesk administrator said "Our national Helpdesk is often the first point of contact for people wanting help or advice. A lot of the people that contact us have a hearing loss which makes texting an easy way to communicate with the Helpdesk."

She continues "At the moment you can contact our Helpdesk via telephone, textphone, e-mail, fax and now also SMS. SMS is the next step to making the Helpdesk easy to access. We will also use the service to contact our members."

No software or hardware had to be installed, making Text-Connect™ quick and easy to implement. No formal training was required due to the intuitive, user friendly nature of the texting system.

Hearing Concern selected the Text-Connect™ 'Business' package which is aimed at businesses or organisations who want to utilise SMS text messaging as a business communications tool.

For further information contact:

David Tapley, Text-Connect™:

tel. 01952 820 453 email: david@text-connect.co.uk web: http://www.text-connect.co.uk

ENDS (314 words)

A MS Word version of this News Release is available to download here

About Text-Connect™: Text-Connect™ enables desktop computers to send and receive SMS text messages via dedicated 'text numbers'. Text-Connect is a newly formed trading division of Sabre Software Development Ltd.