Listening with their eyes

LONDON-Cell phones are phenomenally popular in Europe, in part because young Europeans are obsessed with text messaging-- sending brief, spelling-challenged notes to one another using the phones' Short Messaging System (SMS) function. In Britain alone, a billion text messages are transmitted each month. But it now emerges that text messaging also has become popular among the 8.7 million deaf or hearing-impaired people in Britain. There are no exact figures available, but Linda Issacs of the Royal Association for Deaf People says anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that the hearing-impaired find text messaging a useful way to communicate while on the move. "Certainly all of the deaf people I know carry a mobile phone and communicate using SMS," Issacs says. Britain's Automobile Association now provides an SMS number for the hearing-impaired, and many police departments are setting up SMS numbers for them, as well.

There are problems, however. Text messages use a "language" all their own-Sample: IF U CAN READ THIS U R GR8.-which may be particularly hard to decode by those for whom sign language is the language of choice. Another problem is that the radio signals from cell phones can interfere with hearing aids, causing wearers to hear an irritating cacophony of hums and clicks. But Orange, a British wireless operator, has begun selling the Soundmate, an electronic gadget that mitigates the interference. Though mobile phones were not designed with the hearing-impaired in mind, it's clear that for many people with hearing difficulties, wireless technology is opening the world of distance communication.