ETHAN hosts seminar to help telephone-impaired

The Specialized Telecommunications Assistance Program (STAP) is a law passed more than 10 years ago that assists any Texas resident who has trouble using the telephone because of any kind of disability or impairment.

The STAP program is not age or income based, according to a press release from Carlene Womack, executive director of ETHAN (East Texas Health Access Network). The equipment is free to any Texas resident who needs it.

ETHAN recently hosted a seminar at Christus Jasper Memorial Hospital to acquaint people with how many different options they have. Examples of problems that STAP can help with include:

For low vision (difficulty seeing the numbers), they have a phone that repeats aloud the numbers dialed. For hard of hearing, several different models have built-in amplifiers. For mobility impaired, there is voiceactivated equipment.

For the speech-impaired, there is equipment that will talk for them or will amplify their voice going out. The deaf or hard of hearing can receive a caption phone to read what is spoken, or a text pager. For the cognitive impaired, there is adaptive equipment based on the disability; for example, instead of an address book, the phone might have a picture memory index.

The STAP program in East Texas is administered by the Deaf Action Center, a non-profit outreach center in Longview. They help determine the best equipment suited to the person's needs, and help fill out the application that goes to the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services - Division of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DARS-DHHS) with proof of Texas residency. DARS-DHHS issues a voucher for the equipment, which is supplied at no cost.

For more information on the STAP program, contact ETHAN at 384-2099.