Source: http://gulftoday.ae
DUBAI: The Community Development Authority (CDA) and Dubai Taxi launched on Wednesday and during a press conference held in Gitex, a new initiative targeting people with hearing impairment.
The new initiative aims to enhance the integration of people with disabilities in the community and to provide additional facilities for the hearing impaired.
According to a survey conducted by the Social Care and Community Cohesion at CDA, more than 89 per cent of the people with hearing impairment in Dubai use taxis frequently to go to work, schools or shopping malls, 50 per cent of them have difficulty in communicating with the taxi drivers while 41 per cent of them depend on writing to get their message across to the drivers.
The new programme, which includes an application developed on Windows phone platform operating System for Nokia Lumia, provides several services to help users ordering taxis and give them the ability to direct the drivers on the routes they want them to follow using voice messages and therefore travel smoothly in Dubai.
The programme also provides an educational booklet with illustrations to be used by the taxi drivers. The survey showed that 46 per cent of people with hearing impairment surveyed, think that pictures are the easiest way to communicate with drivers. More info
