New telephone partnership to help provide independence to people with sensory loss

Leading sight loss charity the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has today (14 June) announced a partnership with the UK’s only personal mobile phone service.

Through the partnership, Fuss Free Phones and the RNIB aim to provide mobile phone handsets to people with sensory loss to help them maintain independence.

Through the technology, users are able to speak to a local ‘telephonist’ who can manage their phone books, place calls, filter incoming calls, send and read text messages and find information on the internet.

By managing a call list for all customers, Fuss Free Phones’ telephonists can help ensure that only genuine calls are put through and unwanted calls and texts are blocked.

Founder of Fuss Free Phones, Simon Rockman, explained to OT: “As traditional phones become more technically developed, they can become less user-friendly for sensory impaired people. For example, Siri is a great innovation but is hard to use for people who are both elderly and experiencing sight loss.”

He continued: “We are thrilled to be working with RNIB to help blind and partially sighted people communicate using all the same channels that fully sighted people do.”