Better to be ignorant than stupid....a phone call with a deaf man

Tommy Boyd, ex TalkSport, Southern Counties Radio, Magpie (for the older viewers) used to say that it was better to be called ignorant than stupid and I have to say that on balance I'd agree. Until yesterday I hadn't realised that there was a telephone answering and call service for profoundly deaf people.

Now I realise that what I am about to say will come across as typical able-bodied condescension but I think it's a brilliant idea and I'm just sorry I did know about it before. The way my interaction came about was simple, we used to act for two deaf people who had ignored their disability to run two successful businesses, the problem was that they couldn't grasp the fact that they had to pay for the service we were providing and so they stopped using us - anyway yesterday I got a call from their new accountant who is also deaf.

The telephone conversation was relayed through a third party who typed my response to the other accountants questions onto a screen that was then displayed in front of him. He then replied directly to me using some sort of amplification. The only problem during the thirty minute call was that I spoke too fast for the typist who had to keep asking me to slow down - as I wasn't working from notes I had to keep remembering which technical phrases I had used so I didn't confuse either of us.

At the end of the converstion the other accountant said I'd made things crystal clear and that he now had a better understanding of their affairs. Apart from the typist having to say "Go ahead," to me before I replied the call was the same as tens of thousands I've had before.

It struck me as being a simple, yet brilliant idea that enables people who would otherwise be excluded from an important function of running a business to communicate with those of us who are lucky enough to take something as simple as a business phone call for granted.