General information about textphones

If you are profoundly deaf or have a speech impairment a standard telephone may be difficult for you to use. Instead you could choose a textphone to make phone calls to keep in touch with your family and friends or organise your daily life just as you would with a standard phone.

A textphone has a keyboard that you use to type what you want to say and a screen so that you can read what the person on the other end of the phone line is typing back to you.

You can also use your textphone to call people who use standard voice phones by using BT TextDirect.

Textphones are available from a number of specialist suppliers and we have included details of some of these in our Useful Websites section. If you are a BT customer, you can now rent a textphone from us for just £15.53 a quarter including VAT.