Text Messaging Technology Helping Local Teen Communicate Despite Being Deaf

From: KTUL, OK
Oct. 29, 2002

Dewey - Teenagers usually don't have trouble communicating with each other. They have a language all their own. But, what if they're among the nearly one and a half million deaf Americans?

Until recently, 15-year-old Brandi Patton couldn't communicate with her friends when she was on the go. The Dewey High School ninth grader has been deaf since birth and, unlike other teeangers who use them, a cell phone to her was useless.

Until she got a phone that can send and receive text messages. The technology has opened up a whole new world for her.

"Because you keep in touch with your friends and your family and you can use that phone just in case of an emergency," Brandi says.

Since she got her new cell phone, Brandi says her three best friends have bought their own so they can all communicate together.

Copyright 2002 KTUL, Inc.