PhoneAbility

9. Closing Address and Conference Summary

Mike Martin - Chairman PhoneAbility

I would like, on behalf of PhoneAbility, to thank all of the Hearing Concern staff for all the work I know went into putting this seminar on. These things do not happen on their own, so thank you to everybody in Hearing Concern.

I want to explain, this booklet " Is anyone answering" which was published in 1990. I actually wrote it. Coming to this meeting, one was hoping to see many things that had changed. I have very quickly put together some outcomes and comments for the meeting, prior to the meeting.

We had a series of questions. " Is there a problem?" Well, Vivienne Pozo clearly set out that there are day-to-day problems that are not being resolved. Adrian Davis made it very clear that you are looking at very large numbers of people, 43 million people in Europe. I think this illustrates that, from the commercial point of view, there must be a market there for suitable equipment.

Then we had to answer the question, what does the telecoms industry and the hearing aid industry offer, and what does legislation and regulation offer?
As I have said, the consumer viewpoint was that there are still problems, and should we still be having these problems now. As we have said, very large numbers of people are involved.

The telecoms industry response which we have divided, rightly, into fixed line and mobile maintains the status quo; and this is not a derogatory remark. What I mean by this is that we have established services, and I would certainly pay credit to BT. I have had the fortune of knowing all the managers of A & D team over 20 years, and everybody has done a great job. If BT can't succeed as much as they would like, how is everybody else to do it?

I think we have to answer that question. How do you actually get through to people? The effort that BT has put in on a comparative basis with all other companies is way above everybody else. But there is still a problem. As we have heard, people do not know what's around, they don't know how to use it, and so information -- the ability to look somewhere -- is still a major problem.

For the mobile industry, I have put all these question marks, because I was hoping to hear something much more encouraging. David actually said, "Things are going on." We have heard this, I am afraid, year in, year out, that things are going to happen, and yet -- and it relates to the next item, legislation and regulation -- the only time that anything really has happened is in the USA when the FCC came out with the regulation.

One really does have to ask the mobile industry, you have known about these problems for many, many years, and nothing has been done about it. But now, because of regulation, things have actually happened in the States, and the question is will they actually gravitate to Europe and the rest of the world? That is quite likely.

We have discussed this question of whether legislation is likely to help or not, and you can see there is a view that legislation itself will not help in the specific instances, but what might well be, if our regulators choose to do it -- and if they are aware of the problems, and these are put in a powerful manner -- then regulation could help to actually implement some of these items.

So what should happen really out of this meeting? First of all, we have to have a realistic market potential, and I think Adrian Davis has a realistic approach to this. I have highlighted "realistic". There's no good saying there are 43 million people, and therefore there is a customer base of 43 million.
You want to get down to the details of who that consumer base consists of. Then we need to prioritise the needs. We need to have a list of what are the important issues that haven't been dealt with.

Again, the question always comes up of what I call "technical opportunities and barriers". There are plenty of opportunities, and there are also plenty of barriers, but it means that people have to involve themselves with these technical aspects.

I would also like to give credit to the Working Group for the Hearing Impaired, which John Barnes chaired for many years, which actually addressed technical issues. There is a very limited opportunity -- a very limited forum -- for discussing these things, but it needs people who have the current technical knowledge, who know the standards field, and who know the problems of hearing impairment. Then you can actually get somewhere.

The other thing is to create awareness in industry. You need to be aware, who is it in industry that's going to actually do something. That is a major problem. Again, COST 219 has addressed this issue over many years, but it is still a problem. With the setting up of Ofcom, we have a new, hopefully clean sheet, and we can create awareness in regulators.

Just as an aside, if you look at Ofcom`s consultative paper on TV broadcasting, you will actually see no mention of hard of hearing. They don't exist, so they don't have any problems with TV! That's a prime example of a major group missing out of the considerations, so we have to create awareness in our regulators.

So what next? Hearing Concern and the voluntary sector should use the knowledge that's available, have a clear idea as to who can bring about change and, above all, speak with one voice. It is no good one organisation saying this and another organisation saying that. You need to speak with one voice because industry will not listen to half a dozen voices. They will listen to one voice that is clear and precise.

Industry has to involve itself directly with hard of hearing consumers. There is a gap, very often, between the manufacturers and the end user. Whether that's a hearing aid dispenser or it's a retail outlet, or whatever, that's often where the barriers occur, and the lack of feedback occurs in there.

I have already mentioned the regulators. This booklet was published in 1990. We are in 2004. Is anyone answering now? I am not really sure, but what I would like to suggest, as a prime outcome of this meeting, is that this publication be rewritten on the basis of the information from here, and be used as a campaigning material for trying to improve the future benefits for hard of hearing people.

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